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48 



Kansas 




f (Thirteenth Edition. 

October 1st, 1S99. 




THE FAST MAIL ROUTE 



...TO... 






JQ Daily Trains J Q 



BE^TWEEN 



St. Louis s Kansas City. 

EQUIPMENT: 

PULLMAN COMPARTMENT SLEEPING CARS, 
PULLMAN BUFFET SLEEPING CARS, 
PULLMAN BUFFET PARLOR CARS, 
RECLINING CHAIR CARS (seats free), 

DAY COACHES (With ComforUbk High Back Seats) 
REACH, WITHOUT CHANGE, 

ALL POINTS IN KANSAS. 



^ FACTS ABOUT 




A BOOK FOR 

Home-Seekers and Home-Builders. 



statistics from State and Natior^al I^eports. 



FARM LANDS, 

GRAZING LANDS, 

FRUIT LANDS 



THE UNSURPASSED AND LIMITLESS RESOURCES 

OF THE GREAT CORN AND WHEAT 

PRODUCING STATE. 



WITH THE COMPLIMENTS OF THE 

GENERAL PASSENGER DEPARTMENT 

~-OF THE— 

MISSOUR; PACtFlO RAILWAY. 



^\ 






A COMPREHENSIVE 

STATISTICAL DESCRIPTION OF 

THE STATE OF KANSAS, COMPILED 

FROM OFFICIAL REPORTS. 



Woodward & TvskV-'^Js' 1*kin*ing Col, ?r. Louis, Mo. 
Oct. 1, 1899. 



■ \5%V 



/ //.2_ 



INTRODUCTION. ''^ 



KANSAS. 



BY HON. JOHN J. INQALLS. 



x" 

V Kansas is the navel of the nation. 
A Diagonals drawn from Duluth to Galveston; from Washington to 

"? San Francisco; from Tallahasse to Olympia; from Sacramento to 

v) 

Augusta, intersect at its center. 

^ / Kansas is the nucleus of our political system, around which its forces 

C^ assemble ; to which its energies converge ; and from which its energies 

radiate to the remotest circumference. 

Kansas is the focus of freedom, where the rays of heat and light 
concentrated into a flame that melted the manacles of the slave, and 
cauterized the heresies of State Sovereignty and disunion. 

Kansas is the core and kernel of the country, containing the germs 
of its growth, and the quickening ideas essential to its perpetuity. 

The history of Kansas is written in capitals. It is punctuated with 
exclamation-points. Its verbs are imperative. Its adjectives are 
superlative. The commonplace and the prosaic are not defined in its 
lexicon. Its statistics cai. be stated only in the language of hyperbole. 

The aspiration of Kansas i j to reach the unattainable ; its dream is 
the realization of the impossible. Alexander wept because there were 
no more worlds to conquer. Kansas, having vanquished all competi- 
tors, smiles complacently as she surpasses from year to year her own 
triumphs in growth and glory. Other States could be spared without 
irreparable bereavement, but Kansas is indispensable to the joy, the 
inspiration, and the improvement of the world. 



4 KANSAS. 

It seems incredible that there was a time when Kansas did not exist; 
when its name was not written on the map of the United States ; when 
the Kansas cyclone, the Kansas grasshopper, the Kansas boom, and 
the Kansas Utopia were unknown. 

I was a student in the junior class at Williams College, when 
President Pierce, forgotten but for that signature, approved the act 
establishing the Territory of Kansas, May 30, 1854. I recall the 
inconceivable agitation that preceded, accompanied, and followed the 
event. It was an epoch. Destiny closed one volume of our annals, 
and opening another, traced with shadowy finger upon its pages a 
million epitaphs, ending with "Appomattox." 

Kansas was the prologue to a tragedy whose epilogue has not yet 
been pronounced ; the prelude to a fugue of battles whose reverbera- 
tions have not yet died away. 

Floating one summer night upon a moonlit sea, I heard far over 
the still waters a high, clear voice singing: 

"To the West ! To the West ! To the land of the free. 
Where the mighty Missouri rolls down to the sea; 
Where a man is a man if he's willing to toil. 
And the humblest may gather the fruits of the soil." 

A few days later, my studies being completed, I joined the uninter- 
rupted and resistless column of volunteers that marched to the land of 
the free. St. Louis was a squalid border town, the outpost of civiliza- 
tion. 

The railroad ended at Jefferson City. Trans-continental trains, with 
sleepers and dining cars, annihilating space and time, were the vague 
dream of a future century. 

Overtaking at Hermann a fragile steamer that had left her levee the 
day before, we embarked upon a monotonous voyage of four days 
along the treacherous and tortuous channel that crawled between 
forests of cottonwood and barren bars of tawny sand, to the frontier of 
the American Desert. 

It was the mission of the pioneer with his plough to abolish the 
frontier, and to subjugate the desert. One has become a boundary, 
and the other an oasis. But with so much acquisition, something has 
been lost for which there is no compensation or equivalent. He is 
unfortunate who has never felt the fascination of the frontier; the 
temptation of unknown and mysterious solitudes; the exultation of 



6 KANSAS. 

helping to build a State ; of forming its institutions and giving direction 
to its career. 

Kansas, in its rudimentary stage, extended westward six hundred 
and fifty-eight miles to the crest of the Rocky Mountains, the eastern 
boundary of Utah. By subsequent amputation and curtailment, it was 
shorn to its present narrow limits of fifty -two million acres; three 
thousand square miles in excess of the entire area of New England. 
Denver, Manitou, Pueblo, Pike's Peak, and Cripple Creek are among 
the treasures which the State-makers of 1859, like the base Indian, 
threw unconsciously away, though richer than all his tribe. 

Thirty years ago, along the eastern margin of the grassy quadrangle 
which geographers called Kansas, the rude forefathers of Atchison, 
Leavenworth, Wyandotte, Lawrence, and Topeka slept in the intervals 
of their strife with the petty tyrants of their fields, and beyond their 
western horizon, the rest was silence, solitude, and the wilderness, to 
the E,io Grande ; to the Yellowstone ; to the Sierra Nevada ; like the 
lonely steppes of Turkestan and Tartary; inhabited by wandering 
tribes, whose occupation was war; whose pastime was the chase; 
pastured for untold centuries by roaming herds that followed the 
seasons in their recurring migrations from the arctic circle to the 
Gulf. 

It has been sometimes obscurely intimated that the typical Kansan 
lacks in reserve, and occasionally exhibits a tendency to exaggeration 
in dwelling upon the development of the State, and the benefits and 
burdens of its citizenship. 

Censorious scoffers, actuated by envy, jealousy, malignity and other 
evil passions, have hinted that he unduly vaunteth himself; that he 
brags and becomes vainglorious; that he is given to bounce, tall talk, 
and magniloquence. 

There have not been wanting those who afiirm that he magnifies his 
calamities as well as his blessings, and desires nothing so much as to 
have the name of Kansas, in any capacity, always in the ears and 
mouths of men. 

Such accusations are well calculated to make the judicious grieve. 
They result from a misconception of the man and his environment. 

The normal condition of the genuine Kansan is that of shy and 
sensitive difiidence. He suffers from excess of modesty. He blushes 
too easily. There is nothing he dislikes so much as to hear himself 



KANSAS. 7 

talk. He hides his light under a bushel. He keeps as near the tail 
end of the procession as possible. He never advertises. He bloweth 
not his own horn, and is indifferent to the band wagon. 

He is oppressed by the vast responsibility of being an inhabitant of 
a commonwealth so immeasurably superior, in all the elements of 
present glory, in all the prophecies of future renown, to its inferior 
companions. 

To be a denizen of a State that surpasses all other communities, as 
Niagara excels all other cataracts, as the sun transcends all other 
luminaries, imposes obligations that render levity impossible. 

The every-day events of Kansas would be marvels elsewhere ; our 
platitudes would be panegyrics ; the trite and commonplace are un- 
known. It is impossible to over-estimate the value of citizenship in a 
State that sent more soldiers into the Union armies than it had voters 
when Sumter fell ; that exceeded all quotas without draft or bounty ; 
that had the highest rate of mortality upon the field of battle. That a 
State so begotten and nurtured should be as indomitable in peace as it 
was invincible in war, was inevitable. Its gestation was heroic. It 
represented ideas and principles; conscience, patriotism, duty; the 
''unconquerable mind and freedom's holy flame." 

No other State encountered such formidable obstacles of nature and 
fortune. Our disasters and catastrophes have been monumental. 
Swarms of locusts eclipsing the sun in their flight, whose incredible 
voracity left the forests, and the orchards, and the fields of June as 
naked as December ; drouths changing the sky to brass and the earth 
to iron; siroccos that in a day devastated provinces and reduced 
thousands from comfort to penury — these and the other destructive 
agencies of the atmosphere have been met by a courage that no danger 
could daunt, and by a constancy unshaken by adversity. 

The statistics of the census tables are more eloquent than the tropes 
and phrases of the rhetorician. The story of Kansas needs no re- 
inforcement from the imagination. Its arithmetic is more dazzling and 
bewildering than poetry, and the historian is compelled to be econom- 
ical of truth and parsimonious in his recital of facts, in order not to 
impose too great a strain upon the capacity of human credulity. 

Notwithstanding the mishaps of husbandry and the fatalities of 
nature, it is a moderate and conservative statement that no community 
ever increased so rapidly in population, wealth and civilization, nor 



8 KANSAS. 

gained so great an aggregate in so brief a time, as the State of Kansas. 
There is no other State where the rewards of industry have been so 
ample, and the conditions of prosperity so abundant, so stable and so 
secure as here. 

It is a distinctly American State, with a trivial fraction of illiteracy, 
the largest school population, and but one detected criminal to two 
thousand of its inhabitants. 

In popular estimation, Kansas is classified as an exclusively agri- 
cultural and pastoral region. It has harvested the largest wheat crop 
ever gathered in any State, and will strive this year to break its own 
record. In corn, fruit and small grains computation and measurement 
have been abandoned as superfluous and impracticable. But these are 
only fragments of its material resources. 

Its fields of natural gas rival those of Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. 

Its mines supply one-fourth of the zinc and much of the lead of the 
world. 

Its deposits of bituminous coal are inexhaustible. 

Vast areas are underlaid with petroleum. 

Its salt mines are richer than those of New York and Michigan. 

Its treeless and unwatered plains sent the biggest walnut log to the 
World's Fair, and have a subterranean flow that is capable of irrigating 
an area more fertile and extensive than the Valley of the Nile. The 
indescribable splendor of the palaces of the Exposition, with their 
white domes and pinnacles, and statues, and colonnades, and terraces, 
and towers, came from the cement quarries of the Saline and the 
Smoky Hill. 

And this is but the dawn. We stand in the vestibule of the temple. 
Much less than one-half the surface of the State has been broken by 
the plough. Its resources have been imperfectly explored. It has 
developed at random. Science will hereafter reinforce the energies of 
nature, and the achievements of the past will pale into insignificance 
before the completed glory of the century to come. 

Atchison, May 10, 1896. 

[From "A Kansas Souvenir," published by the Kansas 
Immigration and Information Association.] 



I^flflSAS. 



ITS LOCATION IN THE AMERICAN UNION. 



GENTLY undulating plain, 210 miles in width from north to 

j^ south, and 400 miles long from east to west ; this is the first thing 
to be said about the great agricultural State which lies in the very 
heart of the American Continent. The plain slopes from west to 
east at an average of about seven feet to the mile ; there is also an incli- 
nation from north to south, as indicated by the water courses which bear 
generally in a southeasterly direction. The mouth of the Kansas river, 
on the eastern boundary, is 750 feet above the sea level; the average 
altitude of the western boundary is about 3,500 feet. 

The StatalieS' between 37° and 40° north latitude, and between 94°, 
38^ and 102° west longitude. 

Kansas is distinctively a prairie State ; its broad surface is diversified 
by an endless succession of valleys and woodlands. The Great Central 
valley is traversed by the Kansas, or Kaw, river, which, inclusive of the 
Smoky Hill branch, extends the entire length of the State. Another 
broad valley is formed in the southern half of the State by the Arkansas 
river, while numerous lateral valleys on the north are formed by minor 
streams. In the southeastern portion lies the important Neosho valley 
and the smaller valleys of the Osage and Verdigris. In the extreme 
southwest and along the southern boundary are the valley of the Cimar- 
ron and a network of the southern tributaries of the Arkansas. The 
northeastern quarter is enriched by numerous small afliuents of the Mis- 
souri. The streams of Kansas are generally fed by perennial springs, 
and, as a rule, the eastern and middle portions of the State are well 
watered. The western part is more elevated and water is less abundant. 

The surface and so' 1 characteristics, elevations, and variations in cli- 
mate divide the Stat< naturally into three distinct zones or belts, dignified 



10 



KANSAS 



as Eastern, Central and Western Kansas. Eastern Kansas, in part bor- 
dering on the Missouri river, is generally high, rolling prairie, hilly and 
broken in places, but traversed by wide and beautiful valleys, through 
which timber-fringed streams find their way eastward and southeast- 
ward. Near the western edge of the eastern belt, the limestone formation 
extending north and south through the State marks the line between the 
high rolling prairies of Eastern Kansas and the gently rolling and almost 
unbroken surface of the great prairies of Central Kansas, so noted for the 
great depth, uniformity and richness of its soil, and the small percentage 
of waste land. 



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DROVE OF JERSEY CATTLE. 

The State contains 82,000 square miles ; a little less than Great Britain ; 
larger than New England; twice as large as Kentucky, or Ohio, or 
Indiana, and larger than Indiana and New York combined. 

The exact geographical center of the United States, exclusive of Alaska, 
lies near Manhattan, in Riley county, Kansas. 

The whole surface is a continuation of "the plains" which stretch from 
the Rocky Mountains eastward through Colorado. The north line, 
along the State of Nebraska is considerably higiier than its southern 
boundary on the line of the Indian Territory. Hence, in traveling 
westward we ascend continually. At the Kaw river, at Kansas City, we 



KANSAS. 11 

are only 760 feet above the sea level. On the western boundary of the 
State, where we cross into Colorado, we are 4,000 feet above the sea, so 
that in a journey of a little over four hundred miles, we have climbed a 
hill 3,240 feet in height. And yet there are no mountains in all the 
broad State of Kansas. It is a prairie State, an agricultural State. 

Here, then, at the very outset, Kansas lays claim for -priority in the 
sisterhood of States. The ordinary observer, possessing only a super- 
ficial knowledge of the economic conditions which govern the settlement 
and industrial development of the country, will see at a glance, that a 
State so advantageously situated, must, if soil, climate, or other factors 
prove favorable, draw to itself a large quota of the constantly increasing 
immigration which is rapidly flowing into the country. The value of 




Wonderful Rock Formation Formed from Overflow of Waconda 
Springs, Cawker, Kas. 

land depends entirely upon the number of people who want land. 

There are now less than twenty persons to the square mile in Kansas, 

including the rural and urban population. As population increases, 

land values rise ; we all know this to be a fact, and we also know that 

in the western half of the United States, the free Government land 

which has heretofore been at the disposal of new settlers, is rapidly 

diminishing in quantity. Further on, it will be seen that Kansas soil 

and climate fulfill every requirement — that in this respect at least, 

nothing more could be desired by the farmer, the stock raiser or the 

fruit grower, and as population is steadily flowing westward, and as the 

cities, towns and villages of Kansas are rapidly filling up, and farm 

lands are being brought under cultivation, it follows that the State of 



12 KANSAS. 

Kansas now offers to the settler who finds the conditions which 
surround him in the older States growing each year more and more 
undesirable, the best possible opportunitj'' for bettering his condition. 

The Government no longer has first-class agricultural lands to offer 
to the homesteader, the free lands are, speaking generally, exhausted, 
for if one now desires to take a homestead, he must go so far away from 
markets, from churches, schools and civilization that the land is prac- 
tically w^orthless. He will find, too, that much if not all of the land now 
nominally open to the homesteader and pre-emptor lies within the arid 
districts where expensive irrigation canals must be constructed before 
the settler can raise a crop. Kansas then, offers that which no other 
Western State can offer in greater abundance or under freer conditions — 
a large, area of first-class lands to be had at nominal prices. Climate, 
soil and moisture, assure the husbandman of success, while the location 
of the State and the comparatively sparse population which now finds 
a home within its borders, makes "assurance doubly sure," that land 
values there will steadily rise to the enrichment of those owners who 
secure homes or farms for themselves at once. 

For the investor or the actual settler, the best lands for the least 
money are to be found in Kansas. No other Western State can begin to 
compare with Kansas in this particular, as the reader will discover as 
he considers the figures which ho will find further on, telling of the 
capabilities of the State as an agricultural and industrial factor of the 
Union. 

The natural resources of the State are wonderful ; it is underlaid with 
limestone of a superior quality which is used for all classes of building 
at home, and is shipped abroad, and used for the erection of buildings 
in the cities of the neighboring States. 

A large area of the State is underlaid with an excellent quality of 
bituminous coal. 

The State is central, it is "on the road to California" and the Orient ; 
it is crossed by several of the greatest railroad systems on the continent, 
and is destined to be the broad highway for numerous trans-continental 
lines. 

The growth of the State has been phenomenal ; twenty-five years ago 
there was comparatively nothing west of the Missouri, and very little west 
of the Mississippi. Where now fair farms and beautiful groves of shade and 
fruit trees stand to gladden the eye, and tell of comfortable and happy 



KANSAS. 13 

homes, the Indian and the buffalo held full possession of the soil. There 
are now busy, bustling, thriving cities in Kansas; churches, schools, 
electric street car lines, factories, mills and commercial exchanges ; mart.« 
of trade whose transactions run into the millions— and yet twenty-five or 
thirty years ago the first footfall of civilization had not been heard, 
where now tower the imposing walls of the warehouse, the grain elevator 
and the mill. 

And yet there are only a million and a half of people in all of Kansas. 
The ground has scarcely been touched by the hand of man — only about 
twenty people to the square mile, and this includes both the dwellers in 
cities and the dwellers on farms — there is 

"Room for millions more." 

And opportunity for millions more. Where now there are only broad 
stretches of prairie grass and sunshine, countless homes will rise ; count- 
less villages and towns, with schools and churches, factories and markets 
will be built. 

It is the destiny of Kansas to be a great State. 

Her geographical position. 

Soil. 

Climate. 

History. 

The character and energy of her people. 

Everything combines to make her great in the nation, and worthy of 
the love of her children who have rescued her fruitful soil from the 
savage and the wild beast, and caused her valleys to blossom as the rose. 




THRASHING 8CENB. 



KANSAS' PLACE IN HISTORY. 



This is not a history. This book is intended to serve as a suggestion 
for homeseekers, a pointer for njen who are seeking greener fields and 
newer pastures, in which they may build homes and rear families under 
the protecting shield of a free government. And because Kansas has in 
its history much that proves its founders to have been men who loved 
home, and peace, and liberty dearly enough to be willing to sacrifice even 
the very things which they loved most, in order that their children 
might enjoy in peace that which they fought for, a brief outline of this 
history will not be out of place here. But it is only an outline ; just 
enough to give a hint to the reader of what manner of men they were 
who laid the foundation stones, and began to lay the walls upon which 
the great edifice, called the Commonwealth of Kansas, now stands dis- 
closed. 

The name Kansas is of Indian origin and means " smoky water." The 
State is a part of that great tract of country purchased by the United 
States from France in 1803, known as the Louisiana Purchase. Prior to 
1854 it was held by various Indian tribes, some native, and others which 
had been removed from the older States. It was organized and opened 
for settlement as a terrritory, by act of Congress in May, 1854, in the 
midst of a heated contest on the slavery question, in which each side 
vigorously contested for the control of the new territory ; and thus it was 
that Kansas became the scene of the premonitory outbreaks which pre- 
ceded the Civil War. Before the formal opening of that war, societies 
were organized by the rival settlers and their friends in the States on 
both sides of the great questions at issue, and even rival legislatures were 
elected and convened. The discussion frequently resulted in personal 
violence, and the greatest excitement prevailed till the breaking out of 
the Civil War. Kansas came into the Union as a State in January, 1861. 
In August, 1863, the city of Lawrence was sacked and burned. 

CLIMATE. 

The geographical position of Kansas is an unanswerable argument in 
favor of its healthfulness. The enterprise and vigorous advancement 
ghown in the years of settlement contribute another promise to the logic 



KANSAS. 15 

whose conclusion is that Kansas is all that can be desired for health, and 
vigorous, pushing health at that. 

Prof. Frank H. Snow, of the State University, at Lawrence, Kan., has 
kept a correct weather record since 1868. He publishes the tables of his 
observations in the large volume of the Report of the State Board of 
Agriculture. From them it appears that the mean temperature for the 
Spring months is 54 degrees, for Summer 76.39 degrees, for Autumn 52.89 
degrees, and for winter 30.08 degrees; the mean temperature for the year 
is 53.34 degrees. This places Kansas in line with the States of Missouri, 
Southern Illinois, Southern Indiana, Southern Ohio, Kentucky, the Vir- 
ginias, and Maryland. 

The temperature of the western half of the State, a thousand and 
more feet higher than Lawrence (875 feet above sea level), is slightly 
lower, but no such accurate observations for a long period are at hand 
from that portion of the State. 

The winters of Kansas are generally open ; the fall of snow is com- 
paratively light, rarely exceeding six inches in depth for a single sto • . 
There is great variety in the cold of our winters. In 1869, 1874 anu iSSO, 
the temperature fell below zero only twice in each year. In 1872 the zero 
point was passed on sixteen days. In the winter of 1867-68 farmers were 
plowing during the whole of December, until the 5th of January, when 
winter began. Uninterrupted cold weather then lasted until the 12th of 
February, when the winter was at an end. The winter of 1871-72, on the 
other hand, extended from the 18th of November to the 15th of 
February. 

The average number of days when the mercury reached ninety degrees 
at Lawrence, during the thirteen summers, was thirty-nine. But, though 
the thermometer indicates a higher temperature on a greater number of 
days than in Eastern States of the same latitude, the heat is, on the 
whole, much easier borne than there. First, the nights are invariably 
cool. Second, the air is in almost constant circulation — rarely becomes 
calm. Third, the most important modifier of heat is the dryness of 
Kansas atmosphere, which cools the body by rapid evaporation, and 
makes the high temperature of midsummer easy to endure. The greater 
the amount of moisture in the air, the more oppressive becomes the heat; 
so that eighty degrees in Philadelphia or Boston is far more intolerable 
than ninety degrees in Lawrence, or in Hays City. 

The average date of the last light frost of spring is April 22di that of 



16 KANSAS. 

the first light frost in autumn is September 25th, giving an average inter- 
val of 157 days entirely without frost. The period of freedom from 
severe frosts is considerably longer ; averaging 200 days, from about the 
4th of April to the 18th of October. The April frosts are seldom severe 
enough to materially injure fruit buds. 

SOIL. 

In nearly every portion of the State the soil is a dark, rich loam, com- 
posed of the accumulated mold of the vegetation of ages, mixed with 
fine, silicious grains of sand and lime. There is no "hard pan," except in 
a few counties on the Missouri border; there is no "gumbo," and conse- 
quently no " craw-fish " prairies. The surface soil is so porous that the 
heaviest rains are almost completely absorbed. " More rain, more rest," 
does not hold good in Kansas. The morning after a night's rain the 
farmer can plow or cultivate his corn field without fear of packing and 
baking the ground. The rain is stored in the soil, and is accessible to 
iLx^ roots of the crops during long weeks of cloudless, sunny weather. 
That is one of the secrets of the peculiar success of crop-raising in the 
State, and the intelligent farmer assists nature by plowing a little deeper 
every year and loosening the subsoil. 

The ground is very easily plowed, as it turns nicely ; the three-horse 
riding plow, cutting a sixteen-inch furrow, is coming into quite general 
use, and is doing quick, thorough work. So easily is the soil worked and 
planted that not a few shiftless people will scatter oats, for instance, in a 
corn-stubble field, and then run a harrow through it, expecting to raise a 
crop in such a sluggish manner, and frequently succeeding, too. 

" The soil of both valley and high prairie is the same fine, black, rich 
loam so common in AVestern States. The predominating limestones, by 
this disintegration, aid in its fertility, but the extreme fineness of all the 
ingredients acts most efiectively in producing its richness. * * * A few 
exceptions to this general rule exist in the extreme southwestern coun- 
ties, but they contain only a small portion of the whole. * * * A very 
common opinion prevails, that the land lying near the Colorado line con- 
tains numerous alkali springs, and that the surface is sometimes covered 
with white alkali deposits. This is not so. During fifteen years' 
acquaintance with that portion of the State, I have seen but two springs 
appearing to contain that substance, and never found ten acres of land in 



KANSAS. 17 

one place, where the vegetation had been injured by it." — Prof, B. F. 
Mudge, State Geologist. 

The soil on the high, rolling prairies is several feet deep, resting fre- 
quently on gravel, and under that is found the magnesian limestone, 
which rock formation underlies the whole State. 

The bottoms along the river valleys and in the creek courses frequently 
have a depth of from eight to fifteen feet of coal-black humus that has 
been gradually deposited from the upper lands through thousands of 
years, and now producing, under good cultivation, enormous crops of 




HARVEST SCENK. 

corn; from 50 to 90 bushels have been cribbed. And all this the 
splendid soil will do without manure, even without rational rotation of 
crops, though farmers who are wise enough to apply both, before the 
prodigious fertility of their farms show signs of exhaustion, reap an 
abundant reward. 

On mounds, and on the declivities of the bluffs, the soil is thin, some- 
times making, when sufficiently smooth and free from projecting 
stones, good "mowing lands," where the stock-raiser is cutting and put- 
ting up his hay ; sometimes only fit for sheep pasture. 

Fifteen per cent of the whole State is in bottom and valley lands as 
rich as the famous Connecticut, Mohawk, Genessee or Mississippi val- 



18 ' KANSAS. 

leys, but in this genial climate, vastly more productive and healthy. 
Seventy-five per cent of the uplands is rolling prairie, susceptible in the 
eastern and central portions of easy and high cultivation, and in the 
north half of the western part, clothed in the thick carpet of buSalo 
grass. The other ten per cent is rough, broken bluffs, in the middle of 
the southeastern part even flinty pasture lands. On the whole, very 
little waste land, that would not bear at least some bunch grass for sheep 
pasture is found in the State. 

There are no swamps, no natural lakes ; artificial ponds are frequently 
made by the provident farmer for his cattle. 

RAINFALL. 

There has been a change for the better in this respect of late years, 
though it has probably not been caused by an increase in the rainfall. 

The original wild grass which covered all the vast prairies of the West, 
the buffalo grass, forms a sward perfectly impervious to rain ; water is 
shed by it as by a sheep pelt. Its presence always indicates a deep and 
strong soil. As it is plowed up, the soil is uncovered, and drinks in all 
the rain that falls upon it. 

Formerly, the creeks and streams would rise rapidly and swell up to 
overflowing in a few hours after every shower. Now, they rise slowly, 
and fall as slowly, even after heavy rains. The buffalo grass is being 
crowded out, even on the unbroken pastures, by a long-stemmed variety, 
the "blue stem," equally good for grazing as for hay-making. We regard 
all these changes as sure indications that, with increased cultivation of 
the surface, more moisture becomes available. 

The records of rainfall, kept at Fort Leavenworth (in longitude 94° 54^ 
west), in the Missouri valley, and on the extreme east line of Kansas, date 
from 1836. In periods of ten years the average rainfall observed was : — 

From 1837 to 1846 (ten years) 30.4 inches. 

" 1847 " 1856 " " 32.3 

" 1857 " 1865 (nine years) 33.7 

" 1867 " 1876 (ten years) 32.2 

" 1877 " 1883 (seven years) 32.9 

" 1884 " 1893 (ten years) 35.9 



TCANSAS. 



19 



1874. 
1875. 



THE LEAST AMOUNTS FELL IN 

. 24.21 inches. I 1882 22.07 inches. 

.25.51 " I 



THE LARGEST AMOUNTS FELL IN 

1872 44.21 inches. I 1870 41.70 inches. 

1877 44.01 " I 

In 1888 it amounted to 41.84 inches. 

In 1889 " " 32.49 " 

In 1893 '* ** 34.21 '* 

About one hundred and forty miles west from the eastern State Hne 
(in longitude 96° 35^ and 1,300 feet above sea level) is Fort Riley, where 
similar observations have been made and recorded since 1853. In 
periods of ten years the average annual rainfall observed was : 

From 1854 to 1863 (ten years) 23.68 inches. 

" 1864^1873 '' " '. 24.22 " 

'' 1874^1883 *• " 26.26 '' 

" 1884^1888 (five years) 22.09 *' 

'* 1889 '' 1893 " '' 36.45 ** 

This point is located so that it may be taken as a fair representative 
for all Central Kansas, nearly up to the 100th meridian, in Trego county. 

THE LEAST AMOUNTS FELL IN 



1854 16.93 inches. 

1860 15.36 " 



1874 15.14 inches. 

1886 18.01 " 



1876 37.38 inches 

1877 32.68 " 



THE LARGEST AMOUNTS FELL IN 

1879 38.06 inches. 



The annual average from 1854 to 1893 is 33.17 inches, of which April, 
May and June have 13.05 inches, and July and August, 11.19 inches. 
The winter months have from 0.50 to 1.95 inches. 



20 KANSAS. 

CHURCHES. 

As Kansas has been settled by an intelligent, an industrious, law-abid- 
ing people, from nearly every State in the Union, the means for public 
worship have been carefully cared for. It is always the best and the 
bravest of an Anglo-Saxon community who leave their homes, and fol- 
low an instinct which has made the race the most potent factor in the 
civilization of new countries and the subjugation of wild lands. As 
" God sifted three nations " to find material strong enough and brave 
enough in mind and body for the first settlements in America, so ever 
since that day the sifting process has been going on. As New England 
was settled by brave spirits from the older world across the sea, so has 
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kansas been settled by the stronger and mor^ 
adventurous of the descendants of those men. " Freedom to worship 
God " was the keynote, the battle cry, the great overshadowing influence 
which nerved our fathers to their work on the " rock-bound shores " of 
New England. And, as the years have come and gone since then, until 
the epoch of the tenth generation of the Mayflower's emigrants has rolled 
around, we find that the influences which made that hazardous voyage 
possible in the seventeenth century were so strongly woven into the 
warp and woof of the human texture of the fathers, that their sons, in the 
tenth generation, are still moved and controlled by the same influences. 

The commonwealths of Massachusetts and Connecticut were built upon 
a religious idea. In Ohio, Illinois, and, finally, in Kansas, we find that 
this enduring and ever present thought in the hearts of a freedom-loving 
people has blossomed into a flower which guarantees to all men who live 
beneath the protecting shields of the constitutions of those States, a 
larger, broader, more perfect religious liberty than the fathers dreamed of. 

As soon as a new county was organized in Kansas, and the civil 
authority established, the people with one accord turned their attention 
to the organization of churches and schools. Wiser than their fathers, 
they separated church and State, and wiser still than this, they ordained 
that the State should not teach religion in the public schools, leaving 
that duty to the parents, and so securing absolute fairness in the expen- 
diture of public moneys as between the adherents of diflerent religious 
bodies. The wisdom of this action soon became apparent. Everywhere 
the school and the church flourished side by side ; the one serving as the 
complement of the other. 



KANSAS. 21 

Kansas has all, or nearly all, of the religious denominations within 
her borders, as will be seen from the following alphabetical list, taken 
from the latest official report obtainable — the State publication for 1890. 

Advent Christian, African Methodist Episcopal, Associate Presby- 
terian, Baptist, Brethren in Christ, Christian, Christian Reformed, 
Church of God, Congregational, Cumberland Presbyterian, English 
Lutheran, Episcopal, Evangelical Association, Free Methodist, Friends, 
German Baptist (Dunkard), German Lutheran, Hebrew, Methodist 
Episcopal, New Jerusalem Church, Presbyterian, Reformed Church, 
Reformed Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, Seventh Day Adventist, Sev- 
enth Day Baptist, Spiritualist, Swedish Lutheran, Unitarian, United 
Brethren, United Presbyterian, Universalist, and Wesleyan Methodist. 

Here are thirty-three different denominations firmly entrenched in the 
State, owning property amounting in the aggregate to 18,801,870. There 
are 4,539 different church organizations owning 2,566 churches with a 
membership of 326,938. The larger denominations are as follows : 

The Methodist Episcopal comes first with 1,332 organizations, 86,664 
members, 774 churches, and 13,108,295 worth of property. 

The Baptists have 558 organizations, 32,698 members, 263 churches 
and $930,016 worth of property. 

The Christians have 354 organizations, 25,200 members, 196 churches 
and $468,975 worth of property. 

The Presbyterians have 370 organizations, 24,050 members, 267 
churches and $1,078,860 worth of property. 

The Congregationalists have 202 organizations, 12,053 members, 155 
churches and $666,100 worth of property. 

The Roman Catholics have 367 organizations, 87,454 members, 271 
churches and $625,561 worth of property. 

The number of churches in Kansas increased from 1,936 in 1888 to 
4,539 in 1892, a gain of 403, or 17 per cent, and the value of church 
property increased from $6,415,937 in 1888 to $8,801,870, a gain of 
$2,385,933, or 37 per cent. 

DENOMINATIONAL SCHOOLS. 

Before treating of the public school system of the State, something 
more than a passing mention is due to the remarkable development of 
the denominational schools, fostered and supported by the churches. 
That so new a State as Kansas should have developed church schools to 



22 KANSAS. 

the extent shown by the following figures is certainly remarkable, and 
speaks eloquently of the esteem in which moral and intellectual culture 
is held by the people who have given freely of their money, time and 
thought, that these schools might be established, where the religious 
tenets held by the parents could be transmitted to the children. 

There are no less than thirty-five denominational schools in the State. 
These schools have an average yearly attendance of 5,000, and own 
property amounting to $2,831,000. 

Denominational schools are very dear to the hearts of many parents, 
and it is presumed that the ability to send one's children to a church 
school would be an important factor in enabling the head of a family, 
who was looking about him with the idea of changing his residence, in 
deciding as to where he would locate. With this idea in view, the fol- 
lowing information as to the location of denominational schools in Kan- 
sas is here given : 

Baker University, at Baldwin, was founded in 1858. There are 
twenty -three instructors, and the enrollment of students is over 500 ; the 
graduates number 413. The library contains 5,000 volumes. This 
school is under the control of tbe Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Bethany College, located at Lindsborg, is under the supervision of the 
Lutheran Church. Rev. C. A. Swenson, Ph. D., is President. There 
are twenty-five instructors and 500 students enrolled. The college was 
organized in 1881, and has graduated 195 students. 

At Enterprise is located the Central College of the United Brethren 
Church. This school, organized in 1891, has ten instructors, an 
enrollment of 170, and a library of 1,000 volumes. Although the school 
is in its beginning, it has an income, from all sources, of $32,000. 

The College of Emporia, at Emporia, was organized in 1882, under the 
auspices of the Presbyterian Church, and has thirteen instructors, an 
enrollment of 120 students, and a library of 4,000 volumes. 

At Highland is also another Presbyterian college. Highland Univer- 
sity, organized in 1870, which now has a force of seven teachers, 
seventy-five pupils enrolled, and an annual income of $3,700. 

The Kansas Wesleyan University, at Salina, was established in 1886, 
under the control of the Methodist Episcopal Church. There is a 
teaching force of nineteen instructors; the enrollment is about 400. 
Since its organization it has graduated twenty-one students. 



KANSAS. 23 

Midland College, Atchison, is under the control of the Evangelical 
Lutheran Church. It has twelve instructors, 120 enrollment, and a 
library of more than 5,000 volumes. Thirty-two students have been 
graduated. 

Ottawa University, of Ottawa, belonging to the Baptist Church, was 
founded in 1860. Fifteen instructors are employed, and the enrollment 
is about 450. The graduates number eighty-two. 




BEAUTIFUL SCENERY. 

The Southwest Kansas was established at Winfield in 1881, under the 
auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church. There are 130 students in 
attendance. The school has graduated eighty-five students. 

St. Benedict's College, at Atchison, was founded by the Roman 
Catholic Church in 1858. The school has twenty-four instructors, 170 
students, and a library of 12,000 volumes. 

St. Mary's College, at St. Mary's, was organized in 1869. The institu- 
tion has a corps of thirty-two teachers, an enrollment of about 250, and 



24 KANSAS. 

a large library of 15,000 volumes. One hundred and seventy-two 
students have been graduated by the school. 

Washburn College, at Topeka, was founded in 1865, under the manage- 
ment of the Congregational Church. It has graduated 150 persons. 
There are fourteen instructors, and an enrollment of over 200. 

McPherson College, at McPherson, is under the direction of the 
Dunkard Church. It is one of the most important institutions of learn- 
ing, and enjoys a wide popularity. 

Bethel College, at Newton, is owned and controlled by the Mennonite 
Church. It is the only school of its kind in the State. It is free from 
debt, and, therefore, on a safe financial basis. 



THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM. 

Kansas is a State which has the right to boast of its public school system. 
The general government by a wise provision of law set aside the 16th 
and 36th section in each township for the benefitof the school fund. 
The fines collected from law breakers are in many instances placed to 
the credit of this fiind. Whenever there are fifteen children between 
the ages of five and twenty-one years, a school district may be estab- 
lished, and thereafter the length of term in such district, if it has "a good 
and suflacient" school house, must be four months and may be twelve ; 
the law making it the duty of the county superintendent, in conjunction 
with the county commissioners, to levy a tax sufficient to sustain the 
school for at least four months. 

CITY SCHOOLS. 

In Kansas there are three classes of cities : first, second and third ; 
the cities of the first class have at least 15,000 inhabitants, and cities of 
the second class have at least 2,000 inhabitants. In cities of the first 
class the board of education has the power to elect a superintendent of 
schools, and to establish a high school. Every city of the first class and 
nearly every city of the second class has a superintendent and high 
schools. In a city of the second class the board of education consists of 
two members from each ward. Cities of the third class are subject to 
the laws governing county districts, and are, for school purposes, under 
the jurisdiction of the county superintendent 



KANSAS. 25 

GRADED COUNTRY SCHOOLS. 

In nearly every county in the State a uniform course of study is 
followed, periodical examinations are held, and common-school diplomas 
are granted to pupils who finish with credit the prescribed course. The 
diploma granted by the county superintendent is usually taken at its 
face value in the high school at the county seat, and will always be 
honored in the county high school, when such a school has been estab- 
lished. In Dickinson county, for instance, the common-school diploma 
admits the holder into the county high school at Chapman, and the 
diploma granted to the pupil there, on finishing the course, admits him 
to the State University, State Normal School, or State Agricultural 
College. Thus from the first year of his school life, in the primary 
grade of the district school, the pupil has kept before him, as a constant 
incentive to study, the common-school diploma, graduation from the 
high school, and at last graduation from whichever of the higher 
colleges he may choose to enter. 

TEACHERS' ASSOCIATIONS. 

Meetings of Teachers' Associations are held annually in diflerent parts 
of the State and are largely attended. The Association is not simply a 
tumultuous gathering without definite aim, for the work at each session 
is outlined with systematic wisdom. The college and high school 
section has its separate meeting to discuss questions relating solely to 
secondary and higher education ; likewise, the common and graded 
section meets to consider subjects pertaining exclusively to the common 
schools. Each morning or afternoon, as may be determined, there is a 
union meeting composed of all the sections. The resolutions of the 
Association always receive respectful treatment from the Legislature, 
and it can be said that, as a general rule, changes not approved by the 
teachers of the State, as represented in the State Association, are seldom 
made. 

THE INSTITUTE LAW. 

In 1877, the State Legislature, guided by eminent teachers, enacted the 
institute law. It is a notable fact that nearly every school law on the 
Kansas statute book was placed there on the prompting or leading of 
some teacher. 



26 KANSAS. 

It is provided in this law, that every county superintendent shall hold 
annually in his county, for a term of not less than four weeks, a Normal 
Institute for the instruction of teachers, and those desiring to teach. It 
is provided that in sparsely settled portions of the State, two or more 
counties may unite in holding one Normal Institute. Yet such is the 
spirit of superintendents and teachers, that this privilege is seldom 
exercised. In 1890, each county in Kansas had its own Normal Institute. 
The revenue for the support of the institute is derived from fees paid by 
applicants for teachers' certificates, and from fees paid by students at the 
institute. The examination fee is one dollar ; the institute registration 
fee, one dollar. Thus it will be seen that the total cost of tuition to 
each student for four weeks' instruction is at the most but two, and if the 
student has a two or three years' certificate, the cost is but one dollar. 
Board is, of course, not considered in this estimate. There is no expense 
for books. The State grants annually to every institute in which fifty or 
more students are enrolled, fifty dollars, and the county commissioners 
may pay into the Normal Institute fund of the county a sum not to ex- 
ceed one hundred dollars. The county superintendent manages the 
institute, and employs the conductors and such additional instructors as 
may be needed. These selections must be approved by the State Super- 
intendent. A course of study prepared by the State Board of Education 
is required to be followed in every institute. The course is now graded, 
and it is expected that the Legislature will soon amend the law so that 
long-time certificates can be granted to teachers who finish the course, 
and have had experience in teaching. Instruction in normal institutes 
is given in orthography, reading, penmanship, grammar, arithmetic, 
United States history, physiology, constitution of the United States, 
natural philosophy, book-keeping, drawing, botany, mental philosophy, 
methods of instruction, school organization and management and calis- 
thenics. The study of didactics, school management and organization is 
made prominent, and in all the classes the instructors are expected to 
make the acquisition of facts incidental to the important work of a 
training in methods, and in mental science as related to teaching. 
These normal institutes have done a vast deal of good during the four- 
teen years which have passed since the law was adopted. 



KANSAS. 27 



TEACHERS' CERTIFICATES. 

The State Board of Education holds an examination for State certifi- 
cates once a year, in the month of August. For the convenience of 
candidates, the examination is held at each of four or five central points. 
For instance, in 1890 examinations were held at Topeka, Lawrence, 
Manhattan, Emporia, Norton and Dodge City. State certificates are 
issued to candidates who pass the required examination, and who have 
taught school for one year. 

A State diploma is issued to successful candidates who have taught for 
five years, two of which must have been in the State of Kansas. 
Students who complete the course at the State Normal School are granted 
a life diploma, which authorizes the holder to teach in any part of the 
State. A one-year State certificate is also granted to students who com- 
plete the first two years' work. 

COUNTY CERTIFICATES. 

In every county there are held four examinations each year — one on 
the last Saturday in January, in April, in October, and at the close of the 
annual Normal Institute. The questions are prepared by the State Board 
of Education, and are sent to the County Superintendent of each county 
a few days before the examination. The questions arfe in a sealed pack- 
age, which must not be opened until the hour for beginning the examina- 
tion has arrived. The county examining Board consists of the County 
Superintendent and two associates, each of whom must hold a first-grade 
county certificate, and each of whom is appointed by the County Com- 
missioners, on the nomination of the County Superintendent. County 
certificates are of three grades — first, second and third. Certificates of 
the first grade are issued to persons who make a general average of 90 
per cent in the following named studies: Orthography, reading, Avriting, 
English • grammar, composition, geography, arithmetic. United States 
history, constitution of the United States, book-keeping, physiology and 
hygiene, the theory and practice of teaching, the elements of natural 
philosophy. Seventy is the lowest percentage allowed in any branch for 



28 KANSAS. 

the grade. The applicant must be at least eighteen years of age, and 
must have taught, successfully, twelve school months. 

The second-grade certificate is granted to persons who average 80 per 
cent in all the branches prescribed for first-grade certificates, except 
book-keeping and natural philosophy. The applicants for second-grade 
certificates must not fall below 60 per cent in any one branch. Persons 
who receive this grade must be not less than seventeen years of age, and 
must have taught successfully at least three months. The qualifications 
for certificates of the third grade may be prescribed by the County 
Examining Board, though the custom throughout the State is to require 
applicants for that grade to be examined in all the branches required for 
the first grade except book-keeping, natural philosophy and constitution 
of the United States. The average generally required is 70 per cent. 

The first-grade certificate continues in force three years, the second 
two years, the third one year. The first-grade county certificate has, to 
a limited extent, the value of a State certificate, for, on the endorsement 
of the County Superintendent, an unexpired first grade can be made 
valid in any county in the State. 

TEMPORARY CERTIFICATES. 

The County Superintendent is authorized to issue temporary certifi- 
cates, valid only until the next regular examination, and in the school 
district designated in the certificate. The certificate can be issued only 
on the request of the District Board of the district in which the certificate 
is to be used. Under the old system, and it is that which is still in force 
in nearly every other State, each County Board made its own questions 
and fixed its own standard. Hence it is not surprising that there w^ere 
varying standards, which made life somewhat burdensome to the teacher 
who, in the pursuit of his calling, moved from county to county. 

The diploma issued by the State Normal School authorizes the holder 
to teach in the schools of any district or city in the State. Detailed 
information concerning the diploma can be found in the section relating 
to the Normal School, 



30 KANSAS 



HIGH SCHOOLS, 



Nearly every city in the State has an excellent high school, usually 
furnished with all needed apparatus and a well-selected library. But 
until 1886 the State had made no provision for high schools outside of 
incorporated cities. The county high school act passed in 1886 provides 
that, for the purpose of affording better educational facilities for pupils 
more advanced than those attending district schools, and for persons 
who desire to fit themselves for teaching, in each county having a 
population of six thousand or more, a county high school may be 
established by a vote of the people. A county high school election is 
called by the County Commissioners on the petition of one-third the 
legal voters in the county. If the majority vote in favor of the school, 
the County Commissioners appoint six persons who, with the County 
Superintendent, shall constitute a board of trustees for the school. The 
appointments hold only until the next general election, and provision is 
made that two trustees shall be elected every year. It is provided that 
in no case shall the total tax for building, teachers' wages, and incidental 
expenses exceed six mills on the dollar, and for teachers' wages and 
incidental expenses alone, the., tax must not exceed three mills on the 
dollar. The law requires that there shall be three courses of instruction — 
a general course, a normal course, and a collegiate course — each requir- 
ing three years' study. Tuition is free to all pupils residing in the 
county in which the school is situated. No person shall be admitted to 
the county high school who has not passed a satisfactory examination in 
all the branches required to be taught in district schools. Non-resident 
pupils may be admitted on the payment of tuition fees. Those graduat- 
ing from the normal course shall be entitled to a teacher's second-grade 
certificate and are admitted to the first year of professional work at the 
State Normal School without further examination. And those graduating 
from the collegiate course are admitted to the Freshman class of the 
State University and of the State Agricultural College without further 
examination. 

The county high school act has been in force about four years, and 
already two counties have availed themselves of its liberal provisions. 
In Chapman, Dickinson county, there is one of the best high schools in 
the State. The building itself is a beautiful structure, and liberal pro- 



KANSAS. 31 

vision has been made for the work to be done within its walls. The 
school was opened in 1888. It was asserted by many that the school 
would be simply local in its character, and that no pupils could be 
expected from remote parts of the county. But the register for this and 
last year shows that every township in the county is well represented, 
and there are a number of students from places fifteen to twenty miles 
distant from Chapman. The enrollment the first year was 137. The 
people of Dickinson county, without regard to location or to party, have 
taken a great interest in the school, and those who are remote from 
Chapman have been as cordial in their support as those living in the 
immediate neighborhood. The school itself is educating the people, for 
it is a perpetual stimulus to all the pupils in the district schools to press 
forward to graduation. In the county high school we have found the 
link which connects the country district schools with our higher institu- 
tions of learning. The professors at this school are graduates of the 
University of Kansas, the Illinois Normal School, the Kansas Normal 
College, Iowa College, and other recognized seats of learning. 

In the foregoing condensed view of the Kansas public school system, 
the reader will see what ample educational facilities have been placed 
within the easy reach of every child in the State, poor and rich. Per- 
fection in the machinery is not claimed, but advancement is discernible 
in every section of the school laws. The people of Kansas are constantly 
pressing forward to higher ground, and inequalities and imperfections of 
all sorts will gradually but surely disappear. 

The following resume of statistical tables relating to common schools 
for the year 1896, tells, in the most concise form, what the people of 
Kansas are doing to educate the children of the commonwealth : 

The statistical tables for 1896 give these totals : At the Normal Insti- 
tutes, in all counties, the total number of days in session was 2,169. The 
average daily attendance was 9,949. The enrollment was 12,868 : 

The number of organized school districts in the State was 9,284. 

The number of district clerks reporting was 8,975. 

Number of male teachers, 4,424. 

Number of female teachers, 7,484. 

School population between the ages of 5 and 21 years : 

Males 250,385 

Females -245,368 

Total 495,771 

Average length of the school year in weeks, 25.1. 



32 KANSAS. 

RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS. 

RECEIPTS. 

From County Treasurers from district taxes $3,481,447 46 

From State and county funds, apportioned to districts 484,066 25 

Total amount received during the year from all sources for 

school purposes 4,718,367 41 

DISBURSEMENTS. 

For teachers' wages and supervision $2,976,973 45 

For rent, repairs, fuel and incidentals 632,666 25 

Total disbursements during year for school purposes 4,158,999 59 



HIGHER EDUCATION. 

The school system outlined by the pioneers in the State Constitution 
was complete from turret to foundation stone, from the prairie school 
house to the university. Section 2, of the Constitution, reads as follows: 
" The Legislature shall encourage the promotion of moral, scientific and 
agricultural improvement, by establishing a uniform system of common 
schools and schools of higher grade, embracing normal, preparatory, col- 
legiate and university departments." Carrying out the spirit and letter of 
this section, the Kansas people have established three great schools. 

The University of Kansas, situated at Lawrence. 

The State Normal School, at Emporia. 

The State Agricultural College, at Manhattan. 

THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS. 

In the act admitting Kansas into the Union, it is provided that seventy- 
two sections of land shall be set apart and reserved for the use and sup- 
port of a State University, to be selected by the Governor of said State, 
subject to the approval of the general land office, and to be appropriated 
and applied in such manner as the Legislature of said State may pre- 
scribe for the purpose aforesaid, but for no other purpose. The Univer- 
sity buildings occupy the summit of Mt. Oread, concerning which the 
words of the Psalmist could be fittingly used, " Mount Zion stands most 



KANSAS 



33 




34 KANSAS. 

beautiful, the joy of all the land." From the doors of the main build- 
ing can be obtained one of the loveliest and most significant views in the 
land. For there, spread out before one, are hill and dale, fields and 
orchards, streams and woods, church spires and schoolhouse turrets. 
In brief, all the evidences of a Christian civilization, and all wrested 
from the wilderness of Nature and the savagery of man during the last 
thirty-five years. 

The University first occupied the building now known as "North 
College," and at present given up to the School of Fine Arts. This 
building was erected in 1866. In 1874 the main building was dedicated. 
Since that time one building after another has been erected, until now 
seven buildings are in constant use, and one more is in course of erec- 
tion. The latter, the Fowler Machine Shops, will be completed and 
ready for occupancy by January 1st, 1899. The equipment is complete 
in all departments. The Library now numbers over 30,000 volumes. 
In the Natural History collection there are over 175,000 specimens. 
Snow Hall is the home of the Dyche collection of North American 
Mammals, which attracted so much attention in the Kansas Building 
at the World's Fair. This collection, restored to the Museum and 
remounted, is an object of much interest. 

The University is divided into six schools, Art, Pharmacy, Law, 
Music, Fine Arts and Graduate schools. These are the six heads, but 
under each are many departments and subdivisions ; there are courses 
in civil and electrical engineering; special courses in law ; a prepara- 
tory medical course, which is given due credit by Eastern medical 
schools of high rank ; and special work in music, painting and oratory 
is offered. Nearly two hundred optional studies are offered the student 
of the School of Arts, from which to select the studies of his junior and 
senior years. In the School of Law, thorough instruction is given in 
all the principles of law known in our State or Federal courts. 

There have been in attendance at the University during the past 
year (1898), 1,064 regularly enrolled students. One hundred and forty- 
five schools and academies prepare students directly for this insti- 
tution. 

The University of Kansas draws its students from all parts of the 
State, more especially from the homes of the farmers, mechanics and 



KANSAS. 35 

laborers, as the following table, giving the occupations of the parents of 
the students, conclusively shows : 

Farmers 36 percent. 

Laborers and artisans 14J4 " 

Merchants and tradesmen 31 '^ 

Professional men (doctors, lawyers, 

ministers, teachers, etc.) 14 " 

Bankers and capitalists 3>^ '* 

Politicians 1 " 

100 per cent. 



BOARD OF INSTRUCTION. 

Francis Huntington Snow, Ph. D. (Williams), LL. D. (Princeton), 
President, Professor of Botany and Entomology, and Director of the 
Museum of Natural History. 

Ephraim Miller, Ph. D. (Allegheny), Dean of School of Arts, and 
Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy. 

James Woods Green, A. M. (Williams), Dean of School of Law, and 
Professor of Constitutional Law, Contracts, Commercial Paper, Insur- 
ance, and Corporations. 

Frank Wilson Blackmar, Ph. D. (Johns Hopkins), Dean of Graduate 
School, and Professor of History and Sociology. 

William Herbert Carruth, A. M. (Kansas University), Ph. D. (Har- 
vard), Professor of German Language and Literature. 

Frank Olin Marvin, A. M. (Allegheny), Dean of School of Engineer- 
ing, and Professor of Civil Engineering. 

Edgar Henry Summerfield Bailey, Ph. B. (Yale), Ph. D. (Illinois 
Wesleyan), Professor of Chemistry and Metallurgy. 

James Willis Gleed, A.M. (Kansas University), Professor of Law of 
Real Property. 

Alexander Martin Wilcox, Ph. D. (Yale), Professor of Greek Language 
and Literature. 



36 KANSAS. 

Lucius Elmer Sayre, Ph. M. (Philadelphia), B. S. (Michigan Univer- 
sity), Dean of School of Pharmacy, and Professor of Pharmacy. 

Arthur Graves Canfield, A. M. (Williams), Professor of French 
Language and Literature. 

Lucien Ira Blake, Ph. D. (Berlin), Professor of Physics and 
Electrical Engineering. 

Lewis Lindsay Dyche, A. M,, M. S. (Kansas University), Professor 
of Zoology, Taxidermist, and Curator of Mammals and Birds. 

Charles Graham Dunlap, A. B. (Ohio Wesleyan), Litt. D. (Princeton), 
Professor of English Literature. 

George Barlow Penny, B. S. (Cornell), Dean of School of Fine Arts, 
and Professor of Harmony, Musical Composition, and Organ. 

Samuel Wendell Williston, A. M. (Kansas Agricultural College), 
M. D., Ph. D. (Yale), Professor of Historical Geology, Vertebrate 
Anatomy, and Physiology. 

Carl Adolph Preyer (Vienna), Professor of Piano. 

Olin Templin, A. M., M. S. (Kansas University), Professor of 
Philosophy. 

Frank Heywood Hodder, Ph. M. (Michigan University), Professor of 
American History and Administration. 

Edwin Mortimer Hopkins, Ph. D. (Princeton), Professor of Rhetoric 
and English Language. 

Joseph Augustus Farrell (Leipsic and Florence), Professor of Voice 
Culture, Singing and Violin. 

Alfred Houghton Clark (Boston Museum of Fine Arts), Professor of 
Drawing and Painting. 

Erasmus Haworth, M. S. (Kansas University), Ph. D. (Johns Hopkins), 
Professor of Physical Geology, Mineralogy, and Petrography. 

Arthur Tappan Walker, Ph. D. (Univ. of Chicago), Professor of 
Latin Language and Literature. 

Henry Byron Newson, Ph. D. (Ohio Wesleyan), Associate Professor 
of Mathematics. 

William Chase Stevens, M. S. (Kansas University), Associate Professor 
of Botany. 

Ephraim Douglass Adams, Ph. D. (Michigan University), Associate 
Professor of History and Sociology. 



KANSAS. 37 

Arvin Solomon Olin, A. B. (Ottawa), A. M. (Kansas University), 
Associate Professor of Pedagogy. 

James Naismith, A. B. (Toronto), Associate Professor of Physical 
Training, and Chapel Director. 

Edward Curtis Franklin, M. S. (Kansas University), Ph. D. (Johns 
Hopkins), Associate Professor of Chemistry. 

"William Baldwin Brownell, A. B. (Hamilton), LL. B. (Kansas Univer- 
sity), Associate Professor of Criminal Law, Domestic Relations, Partner- 
ships, Sales, Agency, and Bailments. 

Miles Wilson Sterling, A. M. (Kansas University), Assistant Professor 
of Greek. 

Edward Charles Murphy, M. S., C. E. (Cornell), Assistant Professor of 
Civil Engineering. 

Frank E. Ward, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering Shops. 

Hannah Oliver, A. M. (Kansas University), Assistant Professor of 
Latin. 

H. Foster Jones, A. B. (Amherst), Assistant Professor of English. 

Elmer Franklin Engel, A. B. (Kansas University), Assistant Professor 
of German, and Registrar. 

Eugenie Galloo, B. L. (Michigan University and University of France), 
A. M. (Kansas University), Assistant Professor of French and Spanish. 

Arthur St. Charles Dunstan, C. E. (Alabama Polytechnic Institute), 
* Assistant Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering. 

Martin Everett Rice, M. S. (Kansas University), Assistant Professor of 
Physics and Mathematics. 

Marshall Albert Barber, A. B. (Kansas University), A. M. (Harvard), 
Assistant Professor of Botany. 

Mary McCallum Smith, Assistant Professor of Elocution and Oratory, 
and Physical Training. 

George Wagner, Ph. C. (Michigan University), Assistant Professor 
of Pharmacy. 

Clarence Irwin McClung, A. B. (Kansas University), Assistant 
Professor of Zoology. 

Raphael Dorman O'Leary, A. B. (Kansas University and Harvard), 
Assistant Professor of English. 

Florence Emma Parrott, A. B. (Kansas University), Assistant 
Professor of French and German. 



38 KANSAS. 

Samuel John Hunter, A. M. (Kansas University), Assistant Professor 
of Entomology. 

Walter Keifer Palmer, M. E. (Ohio University), Assistant Professor 
of Graphics. 

Charles Vickery, A. B. (Kansas Normal), Assistant Professor of 
Elocution and Oratory. 

Hugo Kahl (Upsala University), Systematic Entomologist and 
Curator of Entomological Collections. 

E. Geneve Lichten waiter, Mus. B. (Kansas University), Instructor 
in Piano. 

Edward Barton, Ph. D. (Gottengen), Instructor in Chemistry. 

Alfred Washburn Benson, Lecturer on Pleading and Practice. 

Samuel Agnew Riggs, A. M. (Washington and Jefferson), Lecturer on 
Torts and Law of Railways. 

D. M. Valentine, ex-Justice of the Supreme Court, Lecturer on Wills 
and Successions, including Probate Practice. 

C. L. Dobson, Judge of the Circuit Court of Missouri, Lecturer on 
Corporations. 

David Martin, ex-Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Kansas, Lecturer 
on Evidence. 

Ralph R. Price (Kansas University), Student Instructor in European 
History. 

Carrie M. Watson, A. B. (Kansas University), Librarian. 



STATE NORMAL SCHOOL AT EMPORIA. 

There is but one State Normal School in Kansas, but that has been 
sustained so liberally, and is so convenient of access, that it attracts to 
itself students from all parts of Kansas. Beginning on the 15th of 
February, 1865, with eighteen pupils, it has now on its rolls nearly 
two thousand pupils annually, a greater enrollment than can be found 
in any other State Normal School in the United States. During the 
year 1898, 1760 were enrolled in the normal department, and 197 in the 



40 KANSAS. 

model school. Ninety-three of the 105 counties in Kansas are repre- 
sented in the school, and there are students from nineteen other 
States and Territories. 

The building, recently enlarged, is a stately and beautiful edifice, 
admirably adapted to the purposes of the school. The main corrider is 
nearly 300 feet long, and the entire building contains 75 rooms, exclu- 
sive of closets and wardrobes, especially adapted to the wants of the 
school — making it one of the most complete and convenient buildings 
of the kind in this country. The new assembly room is said to be the 
finest auditorium in the State. It is supplied with water from the city 
waterworks, with gas, electric bells, has telephonic connection with the 
city exchange, and is heated by steam. The laboratories for the 
Departments of the Natural Sciences are liberally furnished with the 
latest and best appliances for illustration and experimentation. The 
Natural History collection is growing rapidly, and is a valuable aid 
to class work. 

The library and reading room occupy a handsome suite of four rooms 
on the second floor. 

The Music Department occupies four fine rooms on the third floor. 
The school possesses seven pianos and an organ, thus supplying a 
sufiicient number of instruments to accommodate all who may wish to 
use them for practice. The Department of Drawing is well equipped 
with a full line of casts, reliefs, models, typical historical ornaments, 
illustrations of the various schools of architecture, photographs, etch- 
ings, engravings, stereopticon views, etc. Every year valuable 
additions are made to this collection. It is conceded that no other 
Normal School west of New York possesses completer facilities for 
instruction in art. The department occupies two rooms on the third 
floor. 

A room in the basement is furnished with tables and tools, including 
turning lathe, scroll saw, etc., for work in manual training. The work 
in this room comprehends a variety of simple exercises in wood — slip 
work, joinery work, wood carving, etc. This addition to the appliances 
of the school is becoming a very popular feature, both as giving an 
acquaintance with the work in manual training which can be done in 
the public schools, and as furnishing opportunity for practice in the 
making of a variety of simple apparatus for illustration. 



KANSAS, 41 

The new gymnasium is well supplied with apparatus for physical 
exercise. Besides rings, wands, clubs, bean bags, dumb-bells and chest 
weights for light gymnastics, there are walking rings, ladders, and such 
other material for heavy gymnastics as the space will allow ; also, a 
complete set of apparatus for making physical measurements. 

What has been said of the facilities in a few of the departments is 
equally true of all. 

As stated in another place, the library is located in a handsome suite 
of rooms on the second floor. It contains about 13,000 volumes of choice 
books, most of them selected with special reference to the needs of the 
school. The list embraces a fine line of cyclopedias, lexicons, gazetteers, 
and educational reports ; works on the them-y, the art and the history 
of education; and standard works on history, literature, science, 
philosophy, etc. The Plumb collection of public documents, now in 
place, will prove a valuable feature for historical students. Students 
have free access to all of the books, under such restrictions as will 
insure proper care. No one thing is more imperative in the education 
of teachers than a good professional library. In selecting a school in 
which to secure an education, young men and women should not forget 
this feature of the State Normal School. 

THE STATE NORMAL DIRECTORY. 



THE BOARD OF REGENTS. 

Hon. M. F. Knappenberger, President, Jewell City. 
Hon. J. S. McGrath, Vice-President, Saltville. 
Hon. John Madden, Secretary, Emporia. 
Hon. S. H. Dodge, Treasurer, Beloit. 
Hon. J. H. Ritchie, Cherryvale. 
Hon. J. S. Winans, Manchester. 



THE FACULTY. 



Albert R. Taylor, Ph. D., President, Psychology and Philosophy of 
Education. 



42 KANSAS. 

Jasper N. Wilkinson, Secretary, Director in Training. 

Middlesex A. Bailey, A. M., Mathematics. 

Joseph H. Hill, A. M., Latin. 

M'Lonise Jones, A. M., English. 

"William C. Stevenson, Bookkeeping and Penmanship. 

Emma L. Gridley, Drawing. 

Charles A. Boyle, B. M., Voice, Piano and Harmony. 

Cora Marsland, 0. M., Elocution. 

Mary A. Whitney, History United States. 

Achsah M. Harris, Critic Teacher, Model Intermediate. 

Oscar Chrisman, Ph. D., History of Education, and Economics. 

Daniel A. Ellsworth, Geography. 

L. C. Wooster, Natural History. 

T. M. Iden, Physics and Chemistry. 

Maudie L. Stone, S. B., Physical Training. 

Eva M'Nally, Associate Professor, English. 

Eli L. Payne, B. P., Associate Professor, Mathematics. 

Mrs. Hattie E. Boyle, B. M., Associate Professor, Piano and Theory 

Anna L. Carll, Assistant Teacher, Model Grammar. 

Hattie E. Bassett, Assistant Teacher, Elocution. 

Elva E. Clarke, Librarian. 

Martha J. Worcester, Assistant Teacher, English. 

Maud Hamilton, Assistant Teacher, Latin and Pedagogics. 

Mary S. Taylor, Assistant Teacher, Mathematics. 

Lottie E. Crary, Assistant, Natural History. 

William A. Van Voris, Assistant, Physics and Chemistry. 

Isabel Milligan, Assistant Critic Teacher, Model Intermediate. 

Jennie Whitbeck, B. P., Assistant, Model Department. 

Hattie Cochran, Manuscript Assistant, English. 

E. E. Salser, Assistant, Bookkeeping and Penmansuip. 

Charline P. Morgan, Model Primary and Kindergarten. 

William S. Picken, Assistant Teacher, History. 



KANSAS. 43 

Frederick B. Abbott, Ph. D., Manual Training. 

William G. Butler, Violin, Mandolin, Guitar and Banjo. 

E. Anna Stone, Second Assistant in Piano. 

Edward Elias, Assistant Teacher, German and French. 

Allen S. Newman, Office Secretary. 

Pearl Stuckey, Stenographer. 

Nellie Stanley, Assistant, Library and Office. 

Bessie Knappenberger, Assistant, Library. 



STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE AT MANHATTAN. 

On July 2d, 1862, Congress passed an act granting to each State public 
lands to the amount of 30,000 acres, for each of the Senators and Repre- 
sentatives in Congress, according to the census of 18fi0, for the * 'endow- 
ment, support and maintenance of at least one college, where the 
leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical 
studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of 
learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, . . . 
in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial 
classes in the several pursuits and professions of life." The fund 
arising from the sale of the lands thus acquired amounted to $502,927.35, 
and the interest on this amount forms the main income of the college. 

The college receives from the United States Government each year 
115,000 for the maintenance of an experiment station; this, in the 
language of the act making the appropriation, is "to aid in acquiring 
and diffusing among the people of the United States useful and practical 
information on subjects connected with agriculture, and to promote 
scientific investigation and experiment respecting the principles and 
applications of agricultural science." 

In 1890 an act was passed by Congress, providing that each State 
should receive for the benefit of its agricultural colleges $15,000 for the 
year ending June 30th, 1890, the amount to be increased by $1,000 for 
ten years, at the expiration of which time the amount will be $25,000 
per annum. The payment for 1898 is $23,000. 



44 KANSAS. 

The total annual income of the college at present for college and 
experimental purposes is $65,000. The State makes appropriations for 
building and other permanent improvements. The government is 
vested in a board of Regents, seven in number. 

The college was established in 1863, on a site about two miles from 
Manhattan. In 1873, the present site, about one mile from the city, 
was selected. From the buildings and grounds there can be obtained a 
magnificent view of the Kansas Valley, one of the most fertile valleys 
in the world. 

The course of study is among the best in the country for scientific and 
practical training. Its shops and general equipment are admirable. 

Graduates of the country schools can pass directly into the college 
without examination. 

The figures in the following table show how the college has prospered 
during the sixteen years ending June 30, 1896 : 

1880. 1896. 

Members of faculty 12 23 

Assistants 7 

Students' assistants 1 28 

Students 276 647 

Post-graduates 2 32 

Graduates 7 38 

Total Graduates 56 647 

Age of students, years 18.86 20.89 

Productive endowment $220,329 36 $501,000 00 

Value of buildings and grounds 60,345 00 240,000 00 

Value of apparatus, etc 25,664 76 135,000 00 

Total inventory College and Station... 86,008 76 397,438 00 

Annual income 19,320 49 70,000 00 

Library, bound volumes 2,500 15,000 

The following list gives the names and titles of all the professors and 
other instructors in the College : 

BOARD OF REGENTS. 

Hon. Harrison Kelley (1901),* President, Burlington, Coffey County. 
Mrs. Susan J. St. John (1901), Vice-President, Olathe, Johnson 
County. 
Hon. C. B. Hoffman (1901), Treasurer, Enterprise, Dickinson County. 



* Term expires. 



KANSAS. 45 

Hon. T. J. Hudson (1899), Loan Commissioner, Fredonia, Wilson 
County. 
Hon. C. R. Noe (1898), Leon, Butler County. 
Hon. C. B. Daughters (1898), Lincoln, Lincoln County. 
Hon. J. N. Limbocker (1901), Manhattan, Riley County. 
Pres. Thos. E. Will (ex officio), Secretary, Manhattan. 
I. D. Graham, Assistant Secretary, Manhattan. 



BOARD OF INSTRUCTION. 

FACULTY. 

Thomas Elmer Will, A. M. (Harvard), President, Professor of 
Economics and Philosophy. 

Henry M. Cottrell,M. S. (Kansas State Agricultural College), Professor 
of Agriculture, Superintendent of Farm. 

Albert S. Hitchcock, M. S. (Iowa State Agricultural College), Professor 
of Botany. 

Julius T. Willard, M. S. (Kansas State Agricultural College), Professor 
of Applied Chemistry. 

George F. Weida, Ph. D. (Johns Hopkins), Professor of Pure 
Chemistry. 

Edward W. Bemis, Ph. D. (Johns Hopkins), Professor of Economic 
Science. 

Oscar Eugene Olin, A. M. (Kansas State Agricultural College), Pro- 
lessor of English Language and Literature. 

Frank Parsons (Cornell University), Professor of History and Political 
Science. 

E. E. Faville, B. S. (Iowa State Agricultural College), Professor of 
Horticulture and Entomology, Superintendent of Orchards and Gardens. 

Mrs. Helen Campbell, Professor of Household Economics, Superin- 
tendent of Domestic Science Departments. 

John D. Walters, M. S. (Kansas State Agricultural College), Professor 
of Industrial Art and Designing. 

Miss Mary F. Winston, Ph. D. (Goettingen), Professor of Mathematics. 

Ozni P. Hood, M. S. (Rose Polytechnic), Professor of Mechanics and 
Engineering, Superintendent of Workshops. 



46 



KANSAS. 



Ralph Harrison, First Lieutenant 2d U. S. Cavalry (West Point), 
Professor of Military Science and Tactics. 

Alexander B. Brown (Boston Music School), A. M. (Olivet), Professor 
of Music. 

Fredric Augustus Metcalf, O. M. (Emerson College of Oratory), Pro- 
fessor of Oratory. 

Ernest R. Nichols, D. B. (Iowa State Normal), B. S., A. M. (State 
University of Iowa) , Professor of Physics. 




DAIRY FAR 



Paul Fischer, B. Agr., M. V. D. (Ohio State University), Professor of 
Veterinary Science. 

Ira D. Graham, A. M. (Eureka), Secretary, Professor of Bookkeeping, 
Commercial Law, and Accounts. 

Charles S. Davis (Kansas State Normal School), Superintendent of 
Printing. 

Miss Alice Rupp, Instructor in English. 

Miss Josephine C. Harper, Instructor in Mathematics. 

Miss Julia R. Pearce, B. S. (Kansas State Agricultural College), 
Librarian. 



KANSAS. 47 

ASSISTANTS AND FOREMEN. 

William L. House, Foreman of Carpenter Shop. 

George Sexton, Foreman of Farm. 

Con Morrison Buck, B. S., Assistant in Graphics. 

William Baxter, Foreman of Greenhouse. 

Charlotte J. Short, M. S., Assistant in Household Economics. 

Enos Harrold, Foreman of Iron Shop. 

Helen H. High, Assistant in Sewing. 



NEWSPAPERS. 

About nine hundred newspapers and periodicals are published in 
Kansas. The State contains a population which may be truthfully set 
down as a reading people. In the early days a high standard of jour- 
nalistic excellence was set up, and this quality still remains in the State 
press. 



POPULATION AND WEALTH. 

Not until after the war of the rebellion was the development of the 
West thought of. The western border of civilization had been at the 
Missouri river, but the Pacific railways completed, opening up communi- 
cation with the Southwest, caused the thousands of young men in the 
over-crow^ded East, and the volunteer soldiers mustered out from service 
to seek new fields. Kansas had been the pivotal point in the strife, and 
was the natural haven of the soldier and his younger friends coming to 
maturity, and besides almost every quarter section of land in the State 
had been placed within easy access of the railways. The growth of 
Kansas was phenomenal. In 1860 the population of Kansas was 107,000, 
nearly half of whom were driven from the State by threatened famine 
or joined the Union forces then mustering. In 1870 over 250,000 had 
been added to the rolls, while ten years later a million souls had made 
Kansas their home, and since that time the number has again nearly 
doubled. In 1871 there were under cultivation but 93,000,000 acres in 
the whole of the United States. In 1885 the acreage had increased to 
197,000,000, thus in fourteen years more than doubling the entire area 
placed under cultivation from the discovery of America until 1871. 
Kansas' quota in 1871 was 551,000 acres ; in 1885 Kansas planted ten 



48 KANSAS. 

times that area in corn alone, four times that acreage in winter wheat, 
twice that in both oats and rye, as much to each in tame grasses, barley 
and millet, half that to flax, and cut hay from eight times that area of 
prairie grass under fence. 

The population of Kansas in 1888, as returned by the assessors of the 
State, was 1,518,552. In 1890 the population, as returned by the National 
census, was 1,427,096, showing a loss during two years of 91,456, or 
about six per cent. In commenting on these figures, the State Board of 
Agriculture says, in its Seventh Biennial report : 

" That the State should sustain such a loss in population, and yet, 
during the same time, increase in productive wealth, and show progress 
in nearly every interest or industry of the State, may be surprising, yet 
it is true. Statistics oflicially furnished this oflBce show the progress 
made by the State during the biennial period covered by this report. 

" The total number of acres devoted to field crops in the year 1888 was 
13,945,772. In the year 1890 it was 15,929,654 ; a gain in two years of 
1,983,882 acres, or 14.22 per cent." 

These figures from the Seventh Biennial report are, in themselves, 
suflQciently suggestive, but when we add to them the figures furnished 
by the same Board, in their annual report for the year ending December 
31, 1891, which has just appeared, the argument showing the actual 
advance of Kansas in material prosperity, notwithstanding the apparent 
loss in population, becomes irresistible. 

In 1892 the total number of acres devoted to field crops was 

18,360,240, 

a gain in one year of 842,222 acres, or within a fraction of eight per cent. 

In 1888 the acreage in field crops was 13,945,772. 

In 1890 ** " " " 15,929,654. 

In 1891 " " " " 17,518,018. 

In 1892 " " " '* 18,360,240. 

Keeping these figures in mind, read what the State officials had to say 
in regard to the falling off in population in 1890, with only the crop and 
acreage returns for that year before them : 

' The above statistics seem to indicate that, while there has been a 
falling off in population, that portion of our people which creates wealth 
has sustained no loss. For, as stated above, we see there has been an 
increase in area in field crops * * * of 15.10 per cent, also, we see that 



KANSAS. 49 

the combined value of farm products for the years 1889-90 exceeds the 
combined value of farm products for 1887 and 1888 by $8,179,351, or 
about three per cent. * * *" 

(And we are now able to add, in further support of the argument, 
that the combined yield for 1891 and 1892 exceeded the combined yield 
for 1889-90 by about $50,000,000.) 

"A careful analysis of the population of our State reveals to us the 
reason why this is so. In sixteen cities and towns ol* the eastern half of 
Kansas there has been a loss of 45,643 in population, or half of the entire 
loss of the State. This surplus population, which added nothing to the 
permanent wealth of the State, came here on a tidal wave. They were 
boomers and speculators, and mechanics and laborers' who always follow 
in the wake of a boom, * * * In 1887 the balloon was punctured ; the 
gas escaped, but the effect of the collapse was not fully realized until 
after March 1st, 1888, at which time the assessor's returns show that the 
climax of city population was reached. * * * The city population, 
which, after the collapse, were obliged to leave, were largely non-pro- 
ducers. * * * The speculators in Western Kansas were also non- 
producers. * * * We therefore see that the productive force, or the 
agricultural wealth-producing portion of the State remains, and that the 
State, in an agricultural way, makes a good showing." 

THE CLAIM HOLDER. 

One other fact should be mentioned, which, taken in connection with 
the above, effectually disposes of the assertion that anything like a per- 
manent decrease in the desirable population of Kansas exists. 

During the hegira to the West — 1884-87— there developed a species of 
genus homo known as the claim holder. Unlike the bounty jumper, both 
sexes were represented. As an "easy job" for the summer, the claim 
holder would leave the desk or counter, the school-room or the farm, the 
work-bench or the anvil, the wash-tub or the doctor's care, and repair to 
Western Kansas, locate a claim, " hold it down" for six months, while 
they breathed the fresh air, wrote glowing letters to their friends, and 
awaited the end of the six months, when they might " prove up " their 
claim and mortgage it ! Well, the " claim holding " industry no longer 
thrives in Kansas. 



50 



KANSAS. 



CANCELING MORTGAGES. 

The records of Kansas show a decrease of farm mortgages of over 
$30,000,000 in the last 12 months. It is safe to say that the farm mortgage 
indebtedness is being paid off at a rate of over $1,000,000 a month. 

Owing to the high prices of farm products, and favorable indications 
of an enormous crop, many a Kansas farm will pay for itself this year. 

PRODUCTS. 

The staple crop of Eastern Kansas is corn ; tame hay, fruit and potatoes 
give especially large yields, and breeding of high grade and thorough- 
bred live stock is one of the chief industries. Wheat is the staple of 
Central Kansas, although corn and mixed crops, stock-raising and fruit- 
growing are fast becoming quite as important, especially in the eastern 
portion of the belt. Western Kansas is but scantily developed into an 
agricultural region, and it is not yet clearly demonstrated that success 
will attend outside irrigation. The wondrously rich soil gives a double 
portion when the seasons favor. A number of irrigation canals have 
been taken from the Arkansas river, and others are being constructed 
leading from the Solomon. When irrigation is applied the products are 
far superior and the yield far in excess of farms in other portions of the 
State. The western portion of Kansas is best adapted to the stock- 
grower, as his cattle will thrive pasturing on the nutritious buffalo grass 
during the open winter, provision being made necessary only for the 
more stormy weather, when shelter is as needful as forage. Fodder, 
such as sorghum, wild maize and millet, are successfully grown, giving 
good yields without irrigation, while winter wheat, sown early in the 
fall, affords excellent pasturage, serving as a condiment to the drier feed, 
and not harmed by the winter cropping, but, in favorable years, gives 
good yields of grain and straw, while the pasturing pays for seed and 

planting in any event. 

CORN. 

Only about one-fourth of the area of Kansas is under cultivation. In the 
central and eastern portions of the State the uncultivated land, which now 
awaits the quickening hand of labor, is as productive as that now in use. 

Corn and wheat are kings in Kansas, as well as in some other agricul- 
tural States. Kansas has astonished the world by her wonderful corn 
crops. She leads all the rest with a crop that has never been equaled, as 
the following comparison will show : 



KANSAS. 51 

Year. Bushels. Year. Bushels. 

1878 80,314,971 1886 139,569,132 

1879 108,704,929 1887 75,791,454 

1880 101,421,718 1888 168,754,087 

1881 180,760,542 1889 273,888,321 

1882 157,005,722 1890 51,090,229 

1883 182,080,526 1891 139,363,991 

1884 190,370,686 1892 138,658,621 

1885 171,350,703 1893 118,624,369 

WHEAT. 

If "Corn is King," wheat must be "Queen," in Kansas. The wheat crop 
of 1891 was very large and of good quality. Yet the average per acre 
will be more, and the total yield larger, each year. 

The following is the production of wheat for the past fifteen years : 

Year. Bushels. Year. Bushels. 

1874 9,881,383 1884 48,050,032 

1875 13,209,403 1885 10,772,181 

1876 14,620,255 1886 14,579,093 

1877 14,316,706 1887 9,218,501 

1878 32,315,358 1888 16,724,717 

1879 20,550,936 1889 35,030,048 

1880 25,279,886 1890 28,801,214 

1881 20,479,089 1891 58,550,653 

1882 35,734,866 1892 74,538,906 

1883 30,924,936 1893 24,827,525 

Appended is a comparison of the wheat and corn crops in Illinois and 
Kansas for the last seven years, and is shown here, since Illinois is gen- 
erally considered the marvel of agricultural States. These statistics are 
taken from the report of the Commissioner of Agriculture at Washington, 
D. C, and are as follows : 

Wheat, general average bushels per acre in Kansas, 1882 to 1888, both 
inclusive, 14.3 bushels. General average in Illinois, same period, 12.8 
bushels. 

Corn, general average, bushels per acre in Kansas, 1882 to 1888, both 
inclusive, 29 bushels. General average in Illinois, same period. 27 
bushels. 

Oats, general average, bushels per acre in Kansas, 1882 to 1888, both 
inclusive, 30 bushels. General average in Illinois, same period, 34.3 
bushels. 



52 



KANSAS. 



From this it will be seen that Kansas leads Illinois in the average 
number of bushels per acre for corn and wheat, the principal cereals, 
and falls below only in oats. 

THREE GREAT STAPLES. 

Corn, Wheat and Oats are the three great staples which the soil of 
Kansas yields up most generously in return for the farmers' labor. The 
following table will give the reader a general idea of the yield of the 
State in five-year periods. Later on the crop yield will be treated more 
in detail: 

Products of wheat (winter and spring) corn and oats, with the acreage 
and valuation in five-year periods: 

WHEAT. 

Periods. Acres. Bnshels. Valuation. 

1866 to 1870 507,532 8,190,465 $ 9,099,418 

1871 to 1875 2,123,905 32,269,786 29,426,366 

1876 to 1880 8,235,220 107,083,108 82,524,357 

1881 to 1885 8,872,848 145,061,083 95,377,823 

1886 to 1890 8,167,825 104,703,376 69,668,017 

CORN. 

Periods. Acres. Bushels. Valuation. 

1866 to 1870 1,774,709 62,358,358 $ 35,479,115 

1871 to 1875 6,047,289 197,822,847 59,385,912 

1876 to 1880 13,362,514 485,257,623 107,931,240 

1881 to 1885 23,078,502 788,072,179 224,132,054 

1886 to 1890 31,922,001 709,093,223 190,340,240 

OATS. 

Periods. Acres. Bushels. Valuation. 

1866 to 1870 174,279 5,871,316 $ 2,380,778 

1871 to 1875 1,202,846 36,994,637 11,168,762 

1876 to 1880 2,197,981 67,376,610 14,011,744 

1881 to 1885 3,248,143 123,483,700 27,884,744 

1886 to 1890 7,332,869 214,383,929 50,392,968 

This is what the whole State has done, and can do again. In 1891, the 
State, as a whole, did a great deal better than in any year included in 
the foregoing table. 

INDIVIDUAL CASES. 

The following records show what individual farmers have done. 
There are thousands of Michigan and Indiana farmers who can do 
the same thing if they will get a Central or Southern Kansas farm. 



KANSAS. 53 

Net profit in raising 155 acres of wheat ; by A. Buckman, of Medicine 
Lodge : 

The ground was prepared by being plowed and harrowed twice. 

Cost of preparing the ground $232 50 

Cost of drilling or sowing 46 50 

Cost of seed 145 OO 

Cost of cutting and stacking (binder used in cutting) 301 50 

Cost of threshing 209 00 

Cost of hauling to market 143 00 

Total cost of growing and marketing crop $1,127 50 

Total product by weight, 3,700 bushels. 

Price per bushel now offered, 85 cents. 

Total value of product $3,145 00 

Total cost of growing crop 1,127 50 

Net profit on crop $2,017 50 

Value of land per acre on which crop was grown, $15. 

Net profit in growing 600 acres of wheat ; by Reuben Lake, Lake City : 

The ground was prepared by plowing. 

Cost of preparing the ground $ 600 00 

Cost of drilling or sowing 300 00 

Cost of seed 480 00 

Cost of cutting and stacking (header used in cutting) 750 00 

Cost of threshing 714 00 

Cost of hauling to market 510 00 

Total cost of growing and marketing crop $3,354 00 

Total product by weight, 10,200 bushels. 

Price per bushel now offered, 70 cents. 

Total value of product $7,140 00 

Total cost of growing crop 3,354 00 

Net profit on crop $3,786 00 

Value of land per acre on which crop was grown, $10. 

Net profit in growing thirty acres of wheat ; by J. W. Pates, Kiowa : 

Ground prepared by being plowed and harrowed. 

Cost of preparing the ground $ 45 00 

Cost of drilling or sowing 10 50 

Cost of seed 18 00 

Cost of cutting and stacking (binder used in cutting) 67 50 

Cost of threshing 42 00 

Cost of hauling to market 12 00 

Total cost of growing and marketing crop $ 195 00 

Total product by weight, 600 bushels. 

Price per bushel now ofiered, 83 cents. 

Total value of product $ 498 00 

Total cost of growing crop 195 00 

Net profit on crop $ 303 00 

Value of land per acre on which the crop was grown, $12. 



54 KANSAS. 

Net profit in growing twenty acres of wheat ; by C. H. Landes, 
Brenham : 

Ground prepared with a disk harrow. 

Cost of preparing the ground $ 10 00 

Cost of drilling or sowing fi 00 

Costof seed 18 00 

Cost of cutting and stacking (header used in cutting) 20 00 

Cost of threshing 24 00 

Cost of hauling to market . 8 00 

Total cost of growing and marketing crop $ 86 00 

Total product by weight, 400 bushels. 

Price per bushel now offered, 80 cents. 

Total value of product $ 320 00 

Total cost of growing crop 86 00 

Net profit on crop I 234 00 



Net profit in growing 320 acres of wheat ; by Thos. J. Ross, Greensburg: 

Drilled in corn. 

Cost of preparing the ground $ 

Cost of drilling or sowing 69 00 

Costof seed 115 00 

Cost of cutting and shocking (header used in cutting) 230 00 

Costof threshing , 289 80 

Cost of hauling to market 193 20 

Total cost of growing and marketing crop $ 897 00 

Total product by weight, 4,831 bushels. 

Price per busliel now offered, 76 cents. 

Total value of product |3,671 56 

Total cost of growing crop — 897 00 

Net profit on crop $2,774 56 



Net profit in growing 25 acres of wheat; by C. P. Fullington, Belvi- 
dere : 

The ground was millet stubble and prepared with a disk harrow or 
sod-cutter. 

Cost of preparing the ground $ 7 50 

Cost of drilling or sowing 5 00 

Costof seed 12 50 

Cost of cutting and stacking (binder used in cutting) 37 50 

Cost of threshing 30 60 

Cost of hauling to market 5 10 

Total cost of growing and marketing crop $ 98 20 

Total product by weight, 510 bushels. 

Price per bushel now offered, 83 cents. 

Total value of product $ 423 30 

Total cost of growing and marketing crop 98 20 

Net profit on crop $ 325 10 



KANSAS. 55 

Net profit in growing 100 acres of wheat; by G. H. Mustoe, New 

Murdock : 

The ground was prepared by plowing. 

Cost of preparing the ground $ 100 00 

Cost of drilling or sowing 25 00 

Costof seed 85 00 

Cost of cutting and stacking (binder used in cutting) 125 00 

Cost of threshing 132 00 

Cost of hauling to market 22 00 

Total cost of growing and marketing crop $ 489 00 

Total product by weight, 2,200 bushels. 

Price per bushel now offered, 80 cents. 

Total value of product $1,760 00 

Total cost of growing and marketing crop 489 00 

Net profit on crop |1,271 00 

Value of land on which crop was grown, $12. 

SOME INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCES. 

Mr. M. K. Kreider, near Rozel, Pawnee county, Kansas, put in 450 
acres of wheat in the fall of 1896, doing all the work himself. He har- 
vested therefrom 9,000 bushels of wheat. He has sold it at an average 
price of 72 cents per bushel. 

Mr. Louis Artz, a farmer living on upland five miles north of Lamed, 
last spring offered his place for sale. His wheat crop last year brought 
him more clear money than he offered to take for his farm. Mr. Artz 
was deeply in debt before harvest. He has now paid off his indebted- 
ness, and is on his feet once more ; all done through last year's wheat 
crop. 

Seeman Brothers, living northeast of Larned, had 1,000 acres in wheat, 
from which they threshed 23,000 bushels of wheat, making an average 
of twenty-three bushels per acre, for which they received an average 
price of 75 cents per bushel. 

Mr. Frank Frorer, owner of a flour mill at Lincoln, 111., bought, 
several years ago, several thousand acres of land in Pawnee county, a 
portion of which he has put under cultivation, and in the fall of 1896 
put 4,000 acres thereof in wheat. It yielded about 80,000 bushels last 
year, which he has shipped to his Lincoln mill from which to make his 
best grade of flour. Mr. Frorer, recognizing the splendid advantages of 



56 KANSAS. 

Western Kansas as a stock region, has about 1,000 head of cattle upon 
his land, and raised last year 300 calves, and is preparing to extend his 
live stock operations quite largely this season. 

Mr. C. A. Milton, of Ford county, harvested last year 3,700 bushels of 
wheat from 160 acres of ground, which netted him, after paying all 
expenses of production and harvest, $900. 

Messrs. Sprier Brothers, of Pawnee county, rented 120 acres of land in 
that county, which they put into wheat in the fall of 1896. Last spring 
the owner of the land offered to sell it for $1,200. The Sprier Bros, 
harvested from it, last summer, $2,535 worth of wheat. 

In Rush county, Phillip Moore harvested 1,100 bushels of wheat last 
year from forty acres of ground, selling the wheat for $909, which was 
about three times as much as the land would have sold for last spring. 

Mr. L. Munyon, of Timken, Rush county, bought a farm near that 
place about a year ago for $1,350. His wheat crop, harvested from a 
portion of the farm, sold for $1,750. 

Mr. W. D. Kennedy, of Reno county, had last season 160 acres in 
wheat, which yielded an average of forty-five bushels per acre. 

TEN YEARS OF KANSAS FARMING. 

So much has been said in the press of the country of the extraordinary 
crops and prosperity of Kansas in the last six months, that Secretary 
Coburn has prepared a statement of the yields and values of crops, live- 
stock, etc., for the last ten years, in detail, and at the end a summary 
aggregating the total values for the decade. Believing that this tabu- 
lated statement will be not only interesting, but valuable, it is printed 
in full, together with the Secretary's statement of the dairying business 
during the same period. 

There are several significant figures in this report, indicating the won- 
derful wealth-producing capacities of this favored State, and among them 
we call attention to the fact that the high values this last year were not 
at all due to extraordinary crops, but to good prices ; and furthermore, 
that the prices were not extraordinary, excepting as compared with the 
last three or four years. 



KANSAS 



57 



Without going into detailed comparisons to emphasize this point, it is 
enough to note what will surprise many of the eastern friends of the 
State, that while the value of the wheat crop last year was nearly 50 per 
cent above the average of the last ten years, it was 25 per cent less than 
that of the '91 crop, and 12)4 per cent less than the '92 crop ; and that 
while the year, as a whole, justifies all the favorable things being said 




HAULING GRAIN TO MARKET. 

about Kansas in the newspapers of the country, yet, as a matter of fact, 
it was only an average year, after all. ' 

Taking all the agricultural crops of the State, and the live-stock pro- 
duced during the year, the total value is reported at 136J million dollars. 
For the entire ten years, the aggregate values were 1,363 millions, or 
136^ millions a year — in other words, 1897 was exactly an average crop 
for the entire period since 1887. 

The phenomenal event of the year was the payment of mortgage debt; 
and it was assumed that this was due to the fact that Kansas had at last 
harvested a good yield of crops. But the truth is that it is due to the 
harvesting of a big wheat crop in the section of the State west of the 
center, that has been most heavily mortgaged and has been least able, 



58 KANSAS. 

up to this time, to make any material reduction at any one time in its 
debts. The State east of the middle line always harvests a good crop, 
and has always taken care of its indebtedness. The great harvests of 
1897 were nothing unusual or sensational, so far as the eastern half of 
Kansas is concerned. They were just a trifle under the average. 

Eastern creditors of the State, who have gained the impression that it 
is likely to be another decade before Kansas repeats the achievements 
of 1897, might profitably examine this detailed report of the last ten 
years' productions in quantities and values. If 1897 has enabled Kansas 
farmers to pay off from 25 to 30 millions of mortgage debt, being but an 
average year all told, it is clear that this State is abundantly able to take 
care of herself, and of her obligations, under almost any conceivable 
circumstances. 

Dividing the last ten years into two five-year periods, a remarkable 
contrast appears between the capacities of the farmers in years of ordi- 
nary business prosperity, with a normal American market and normal 
prices, and years of industrial depression. Kansas, in this period, has 
never suffered a failure of any two principal crops in any one year. 
When her wheat has been poor, either her corn has been good, or her 
live stock has made up the deficiency. Whatever wide discrepancy may 
appear in comparing one year or one series of years with another, is not 
due to failure of her soil, but to the condition of the industries of the 
country, and of the markets and prices. Taking the first five of the last 
ten years, 1888 to 1892 inclusive, the average aggregate values of agricul- 
tural products and live-stock in this State amounted to $150,000,000 per 
annum ; while for the last five years, including 1897, the average values 
were but $123,000,000. The excess of the first five over the last five 
years was $130,000,000, or nearly a full average year's returns. The 
yearly excess was $26,000,000, which exceeds the average value of a 
year's wheat crop, wheat having averaged, in the last ten years 
$21,000,000. 

Secretary Coburn's summary of these ten years will tend to correct 
the impression that 1897 was one year in a century, or in a decade, for 
Kansas. It was, in fact, a good year for Western Kansas, a rather poor 
year for Eastern Kansas, and an average year for the State as a whole. 
It is more than likely that Kansas will do better in 1898 than in 1897. 

<• — Topeka Daily Capital, January 8, 1898. 



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KANSAS 



61 



Wheat. 
Winter and spring. 
Bushels. 

1888 16,724,717 

1889 35,319,851 

1890 28,801,214 

1891 58,550,653 

1892 74,538,906 

1893 24,827,523 

1894 28,205,700 

1895 16,001,060 

1896 27,754,888 

1897 51,026,604 

Totals 361,751,116 

Yearly averages 36,175,111 



-Yields of- 



Corn. 
Bushels. 

168,754,087 
273,888,321 

51,090,229 
139,363,991 
138,658,621 
118,624,369 

66,952,833 
201,457,396 
221,419,414 
152,140,993 



Oats. 
Bushels. 

54,665,055 
47,922,889 
29,175,582 
39,904,443 
43,722,484 
28,194,717 
18,385,469 
31,664,748 
19,314,772 
23,431,273 



1,532,350,254 336,381,432 
153,235,025 33,638,143 



Rye. 

Bushels. 

3,199,110 
5,850,080 
2,274,879 
5,443,030 
4,042,613 
1,063,019 

978,658 
1,6.55,713 

998,897 
1,661,662 

27,167,661 
2,716,766 



DAIRY PRODUCTS. 

Table showing values of butter, cheese and milk sold (milk other than 
for butter and cheese) for a term of 10 years — 1888-1897: 

Years. Values. Years. Values. 

1888 $ 5,094,674 1895 $ 4,510,631 

1889 4,451,927 1896 4,937 885 

1890 4,145,555 1897 6,259,752 

1891 4,958,961 

1892 4,665,497 

1893 4,846,738 

1894 4,870,480 



Total $47,742,100 

Annual average value.. $4,774,210 



LIVE STOCK. 



This interest is the principal source of wealth in the State, through 
which is marketed millions of bushels of corn and oats, thousands of 
tons of hay, sorghum and millet. It was this industry that first brought 
Kansas to the front as early as 1880, and it is this, to-day, which is build- 
ing up the great city of Wichita, and making within the borders of 
Kansas a large commercial center and packing point. The acceptance 
of the principle, that the packing establishments must be near the source 
of supply, has brought to Wichita, from Kansas City, Jacob Dold & Sons, 
and from St. Louis, Francis Whittaker & Son, two of the largest packing 
firms in the United States, who have erected plants in this city with a 
combined capacity of 10,000 hogs and 5,000 head of cattle and sheep per 
day. The same reason compelled Armour, Swift and others to branch 
out from Chicago and eastern points to Kansas City and Omaha. They 
must now press farther west into Kansas and Texas, whence come the 
vast supply of cattle and hogs, and their objective point must necessarily 



62 KANSAS. 

be Wichita, the city that controls the entire territory between the 
Missouri river and the Rocky Mountains. The larger portion of the 
packing products of Wichita find their market in the south and west of 
this point. One of the leading meat packers recently said that Kansas 
was to be the great feeding pens for all the Western and Southern 
pastures. 

The following abstract of the live stock interests of the State shows 
the gradual progress to its present enormous proportion : 

Year. ^ame. C^ws. «--' ^heep. Horses. ^uleS; 

1870 250,527 122,000 206,587 109,088 117,786 11,786 

1882 971,116 443,381 1,228,683 978,077 398,678 56,654 

1883 1,113,154 471,548 1,393,968 1,154,196 423,425 59,262 

1884 1,328,021 530,904 1,953,144 1,205,267 461,136 64,809 

1885 1,002,920 575,928 2,461,522 875,193 513,830 75,177 

1886 1,462,736 627,481 1,965,149 652,144 572,059 83,642 

1887 1,568,628 692,858 1,847,394 538,767 648,037 89,957 

1888 1,619,849 742,639 1,433,245 492,744 700,723 92,445 

1889 2,000,000 825,000 2,500,000 300,000 750,000 100,000 

1890 1,696,081 674,705 2,192,231 281,654 716,459 78,346 

1891 1,770,591 690,611 2,085,875 260,558 776,533 77,170 

1892 1,708,368 631,836 1,605,098 240,568 804,923 88,585 

To illustrate the magnitude of this interest, the following table is given^ 
showing the value of live stock and live stock products : 

Value of Value of Live- 

Year. Live-stock. Stock Products. 

1885 $118,071,808 00 137,130,647 06 

1886 129,559,527 00 35,350,525 62 

1887 126,558,042 00 37,545,263 74 

1888 131,830,778 00 37,284,447 67 

1889 116,191,465 00 40,762,488 62 

1890 113,533,342 00 39,998,285 04 

1891 117,674,961 00 45,724,709 21 

1892 109,024,141 00 42,853,835 68 

1893 98,266,668 00 51,225,617 55 

1894 78,738,754 00 50,708,714 08 

1895 72,939,258 00 48,591.362 97 

1896 73,565,900 00 45,210,214 63 

1897 94,074,885 00 46,983,922 86 

From which it may readily be seen that Kansas is specially fitted for 
the stockman ; with its good pasture, lasting the year round, and its open 
climate, the industry is fostered as in no other State. The development 
of home markets and the growing of large crops have made it the 
profitable occupation of to-day. 



KANSAS 



63 



TREES AND SHRUBS. 

Consider this list of trees and shrubs indigenous to Kansas soil. It 
has been prepared by Professor Kellerman, of the State Agricultural 
College, and is believed to be very full and correct. The common and 
not the botanical names are given as being more readily recognized : 



Papaw. 

Prickly ash. 

Basswood. 

Water ash. 

Holly. 

Burning bush. 

Indian cherry 

Buckeye — foetid, sweet. 

Soapberry. 

Maple — sugar, soft, red. 

Box elder. 

Sumach— dwarf, poison. 

Black locust. 

Red bud. 

Plum or cherry — wild or Canada 

plum, hog plum, wild black 

cherry. 
American crab apple. 
Thorn — cockspur, red haw, black, 

gray, service berry. 
Bemuld — gum elastic. Southern 

blackthorn. 
Persimmon. 



Ash — red, white, green and blue. 

Catalpa — bean tree, Western. 

Sassafras. 

Elm — red, white- winged. 

Hackberry. 

Red mulberry. 

Osage orange. 

Sycamore. 

Walnut — white, black. 

Hickory— shellbark, big shellbark, 

black, pignut, swamp, bitter 

pecan. 
Oak— white, burr, swamp, black, 

yellow, jack pin, laurel. 
Iron wood. 
Water beech. 
Birch. 
Willow — black, long-leafed, gla- 

cous, heart-leafed. 
Poplar. 
Cottonwood. 
Juniper. 
Yellow pine. 



WILD FLOWERS. 

First among the flowers comes the Tncca Fllamentasa, with its strong 
stalk, with thick, clustering, large white blossoms. It is growing rare 
with advancing civilization, but it still blooms in Kansas, and sheds its 
delightful fragrance. White Poppy, Golden Evening Primrose, Spring 
Cactus, Canterbury Bells, blue and white. Monk's Hood, Acacia, Wild 
Roses, St. John's Wort, Golden Rod, Dark Purple Asters, and the " daisy 
of the prairies, which blooms in red, white and blue," form only a 
partial list of the indigenous wild flowers found in this favored State. 



64 KANSAS. 

TAME GRASSES. 

The native grasses of Kansas number more than one hundred varieties. 
No part of America is more richly blessed in this respect. When 
Corcnado, the Spaniard, first set foot on the plains of Kansas, leading his 
band of adventurers in search of the country of Quivera and its fabled 
cities of gold, he found the plains covered with buffalo, tranquilly graz- 
ing on the rich grasses. The buffalo, mesquite and gamma grasses, the 
products of a dry climate, have gradually disappeared from the eastern 
portion of the State, where advancing civilization, or some other cause, 
beyond the ken of mortals, has brought a steadily increasing rainfall. 
The coarser " blue stem " is now the dominant grass for a distance of 20C 
miles west from the Missouri river. It is a strong, vigorous growth, and, 
in the bottoms, grows very tall — higher than a man's head. Cattle 
graze upon it eagerly, and it yields from one to three tons of hay per 
acre. In the center of the State the buffalo and the mesquite still com- 
pete for supremacy with the blue stem, but the wild grasses are steadily 
giving way. In the western portion of the State, the short grasses pre- 
dominate, and furnish the very best pasturage known in the grazing 
world. They spring into life in March or April and grow until the suns 
of July and August dry them on the ground. They are the only grasses 
which furnish perpetual pasturage. In the old days the buffalo lived 
and throve on them, and, to-day, cattle, sheep, horses, mules, deer, and 
antelope subsist upon them all the year round. 

Western Kansas is the heart and center of the old buffalo range, and 
it is, to-day, the finest grazing and herding ground on earth. 

ORCHARDS AND VINEYARDS. 

Fruit culture generally comes a little late in the development of a new 
State, but in Kansas the climate and soil were so especially adapted to 
the growth of fruits that no time has been lost, and the extent of fruit 
culture in Eastern and Central Kansas is a matter of surprise to 
strangers. No section of country, from the Atlantic to the mountains, 
gives more prolific crops of fine fruits than Kansas. Here is the list of 
successfully grown fruits : Apples, peaches, grapes, apricots, raspberries, 
pears, cherries, plums, nectarines, blackberries, strawberries. 

The quality of Kansas fruits also deserves comment, for they are 
admittedly of fine flavor and beautiful appearance. Note this partial 
list of medals and awards won by Kansas fruit exhibits : 

Great golden medal of National Pomological Society "for a collection 
of fruitB, unsurpassed for size, perfection and flavor." Philadelphia, 1869. 



KANSAS. 65 

Highest premium, American Pomological Society for ** largest and 
best display of fruit, unequaled in size, beauty and elegance." 
Richmond, Va., 1871. 

Medals and diplomas from Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, St. 
Louis Fair, New York State Fair (Albany), New Hampshire Agricul- 
tural Society, New England Fair (Lowell, Mass.), Illinois State Fair, 
Minnesota State Fair, and many others. 

The following table gives the total number of fruit trees in bearing for 
the years 1890 and 1893 : 

1890. 1893. 

Apple 5,111,501 7,056,820 

Peach 4,562,716 4,401,013 

Pear 124,170 149,067 

Plum 616,702 729,953 

Cherry 1,172,143 1,353,641 

NUESERIES, GARDENS, VINEYARDS AND SMALL FRUITS. 

1890. 1893. 

Acres in nurseries 13,936 20,289 

Value of horticultural products marketed $682,828 $609,192 

Acres in raspberries 3,420 3,264 

Acres in blackberries 4,852 3,244 

Acres in strawberries 2,364 2,512 

Value of garden products marketed $743,979 $808,487 

Acres in vineyards 8,672 6,902 

Gallons of wine made in year ending March Jst 149,963 225,796 

Value of wine $149,963 $225,796 

In this connection it is proper to remark that Kansas is a Prohibition 
State. The grape vine thrives in Kansas; and the grape grower of 
other States will be interested iu knowing that no grape rot comes in 
June to blight his hopes, as in States of lower elevation than Kansas. 
The market for fruit is growing larger every year. 

BEES AND HONEY. 

The following table, from the report of the State Board of Agriculture, 
shows the condition of apiculture : 

1890. 1891. 1892. 

Number of stands of bees 39,120 46,238 52,959 

Pounds of honey produced 454,382 352,962 463,615 

Pounds of wax produced 5,638 5,259 5,328 

Value— honey and wax $92,004 00 $73,944 20 $84,782 70 



KANSAS. 



THE SUGAR INDUSTRY. 
By legislative enactment, a bounty of three-quarters of a cent per 
pound is paid upon all sugar manufactured in the State. During the 




year 1891, three sugar factories were operated in Kansas — one at Medi- 
cine Lodge, one at Fort Scott and one at Topeka. Four thousand 



KANSAS. 67 

acres of land were planted in sorghum for the use of these factories, 
and 1 ,078,245 pounds of sugar were manufactured. The results obtained 
at Fort Scott warrant State Sugar Inspector Kellogg in declaring that 
the business can be successfully conducted when the required con- 
ditions are fully complied with. 

COTTON AND SILK. 

The cultivation of cotton in Kansas is as yet experimental ; the 
report for 1891 shows 1,782 acres in cotton, producing 445,500 pounds, 
valued at $35,640. 

The parties engaged in silk culture report favorable progress. 

THE DAIRY INDUSTRY IN KANSAS. 

Not so many years ago, it was thought that the Eastern States, New 
England and New York, with the great dairy portion of Ohio added, 
could supply the entire American demand for dairy products. The 
conditions of the West and the South were considered unsuited to this 
industry. 

When the development of the manufacturing and commercial 
interests of the East became such that that section could no longer 
supply the demand, it was found that the AVest could afford as good 
natural pasturage as any part of the United States, and the "dairy 
belt" was extended to take in the country west of the Mississippi 
river. Many ideas about what were the necessaries of correct dairying 
have been overthrown, and the result is that it is generally admitted 
that the modern fast freight has overcome all difficulties of distance 
from market, that water from wells and cisterns, raised to the surface 
by windmill power, fulfils all requirements formerly thought to be met 
only by running springs, that power or hand separators on the farm 
obviate the necessity for a farm ice supply, and last, that far more cow 
feed can be grown on an acre in corn, sorghum, millet, or cow-peas, 
than can be produced in pasture grass, and that winter dairying under 
these conditions is more profitable than summer dairying. 

The world has learned that in the State of Kansas can be produced a 
large part of its supply of butter, of a quality, and at a price, that 
defies competition. The geographical position of the State is 



68 KANSAS. 

unexcelled for a dairy region, as the rigors of the Northern winter, and 
the ill effects of the heat farther south are both avoided. And a fur- 
ther advantage, and a great one, is found in the fact that good markets 
for the products are found in all directions. As a matter of fact, the 
■ home market is never fully supplied. The city of St. Louis alone uses 
hundreds of tons of butter shipped in from Eastern and other States. 
Also, the great mills of this latter city, working up the flax and cotton 
of the adjacent States, gives the farmer the benefit of the oil meals for 
stock at the lowest possible prices. 

The creameries of Kansas are to be found for the most part in the 
eastern and the central-eastern part of the State, but are being 
rapidly established farther westward. In a few years the whole State 
will be dotted with creameries. 

Statistics in regard to the dairy products of the State will be found 
in the back part of this pamphlet, to which the reader is referred for a 
detailed statement of the amount of the interests here. 

The eastern part of Kansas undoubtedly offers superior advantages 
to the dairyman from the East, who will find here all conditions 
necessary for the successful carrying on of the business. 



KANSAS SALT. 

The Kansas salt beds are of importance, not to the State of Kansas 
alone, but to the entire country. When Kansas salt first entered the 
market, in 1888, it was worth $1.22 a barrel at the factory; in 1897, the 
average price for the same salt, at the Kansas factories, was but little 
more than thirty cents a barrel. This reduction in the price, since 
1888, has been gradual, though somewhat irregular. The citizens of 
the State, and of the surrounding territory, reap the benefit of the 
reduction. 

The United States, at the present time, uses about 15,000,000 barrels 
of salt per annum, and of this quantity, the Kansas salt fields produce 
eight and one-half per cent. So large a production in one locality, 
which only a few years ago produced nothing, has materially affected 
the salt trade over the entire country. It has supplied salt, not only 



KANSAS. 69 

to the State of Kansas, but to the surrounding States, thereby prevent- 
ing shipment from the Eastern mines into a large territory formerly 
supplied entirely from without. It has in this way not only reduced 
the price of salt in Kansas, Iowa, Missouri and Texas, but has been, 
at the same time, an important factor in reducing the price of salt 
everywhere else in America. The subjoined tables show this more 
clearly than can be given here. 

The Salt Mining Area. — The exact limits of the Kansas salt 
deposits are not known. At the present writing, the only factories 
in operation are located in the vicinity of Hutchinson, and at Lyons 
and at Kanopolis. 

The first discovery was made at Wellington, where the beds were 
reached at a depth of 250 feet. Although the eastern limit of these 
particular deposits is probably not far from Wellington, the northern 
limit is not known, salt having been found as far north as any deep 
wells have been sunk in prospecting for it, and from the geologic 
conditions, it is evident that salt exists under vast areas westward 
from the places at which it is now mined. A conservative estimate 
places the total area underlaid by salt at not less than 15,000 square 
miles. 

In addition to this, the coal measure shales, farther to the east, 
furnish a strong brine, sufficient to manufacture unlimited quantities 
of salt. Such a factory was started at El Dorado a few years ago, the 
operator pumping water from a deep well, which brought the brine 
from the coal measure shales. With the price of salt as high as it was 
in 1888, and had been for many years previous, such manufacturing 
could be conducted at a profit. 

Geology of the Salt Mining Area.— The salt beds of Hutchinson, 
Kanopolis and Lyons, are located in the Permian formation. The 
wells pass through the surface material, differing in thickness and 
character in different places, and then enter the Permian shales. At 
Lyons, at a depth of about 650 feet, the rock salt is first reached, from 
which point it is interbedded with shale for about 400 feet. Some of 
the salt layers are from 20 to 30 feet in thickness, while others are very 
thin, some not being more than an inch in thickness. Througiiout 
this 400 feet, two-thirds of the thickness is salt. 



KANSAS. 71 

At Lyons, the company is working on the thickest layer they have 
yet found, which is 26 feet, lying at a depth of 1,000 feet, and though 
there are here and there a few splashes of shale impurities, the salt is 
almost chemically pure, having shown, on analysis, as high as 99.97 per 
cent pure salt. The conditions at Kanopolis, Little Eiver, Kingman, 
and elsewhere, are similar to those at Lyons. 

In the vicinity of Hutchinson, where the salt is dissolved under- 
ground, it is somewhat more difficult to determine the exact under- 
ground conditions, our knowledge of the subject being obtained from 
the records of the various wells which have been drilled into the salt 
beds. 

There is abundant evidence that, during Permian time, large bodies 
of ocean water were cut off from the main ocean, and were evaporated 
almost to dryness, so that salt was precipitated from the concentrated 
ocean brines. Throughout the same period, during the rainy seasons, 
various drainage channels carried earthy sediments down into the 
water, so that the sediments were spread out over the bottom, and 
mixed with the salt. 

Manufacturing Processes. — Two kinds of salt are sent into the 
market from the Kansas salt fields, rock salt, and evaporated salt. 
Rock salt was formerly mined at three places, Kingman, Lyons and 
Kanopolis. The Kingman mine has been abandoned for some years, 
as the demand for rock salt was not sufficient to justify the operation 
of so many producing shafts. 

The shafts for mining rock salt are similar to the shafts used for 
coal, or shafts in other mining localities. When the particular layer of 
salt that is desired is reached, it is quarried out in the same general 
manner as coal. The salt is undercut, and wedged or blasted down, 
great rooms being opened, with occasional pillars left to support the 
roof. The masses of rock salt are then hoisted to the surface, graded 
and crushed to whatever degree of fineness is desired for the market 
to which it is to be sent. 

In the manufacture of evaporated salt, a hole is drilled to the salt 
beds, and two pipes inserted. The outer pipe fits the opening of the 
well snugly, so that water does not pass on the outside of the pipe. The 



72 KANSAS. 

inner pipe is smaller, and allows water to pass between it and the outer 
pipe. One of these pipes passes down to the particular part of the salt 
beds to be dissolved, and the other one to near the bottom of the mine. 
Water is now forced down the shorter pipe, and allowed to stand for 
some hours, until it has dissolved enough salt to saturate it. The 
strong brine, being stronger than the fresh water, settles to the bottom 
of the opening made by the dissolving out of the salt. When pumps 
are applied to the shorter pipe, the extra pressure causes the strong 
brine from the bottom of the mine to be forced up through the longer 
pipe. The strong brine is placed in pans or vats, and evaporated by- 
artificial heat. Different companies make specialties of the different 
grades of this evaporated salt. 

Kansas Salt Commercially. — The Territory reached by Kansas salt 
is as extensive as the United States. The domestic consumption in 
Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri and Iowa, is supplied almost exclusively 
from the Kansan fields, while the higher grades of Kansan table-salt 
has become noted for its great purity and non-caking qualities through- 
out the entire United States. 

The following table embodies the total output of the Kansas mines, 
stated by years, during the whole period since their operations began : 



Value. 

1189,000 00 
202,500 00 
397,199 00 
304,775 00 
773,989 00 
471,543 00 
529,392 00 
483,701 00 
519,475 00 
417,626 94 







Average 


Year. 


Barrels. 


Price. 


1888 


155,000 


$1,219 


1889 


450,000 


.45 


1890 


882,666 


.45 


1891 


855,536 


.357 


1892 


1,480,100 


.523 


1893 


1,277,180 


.369 


1894 


1,382,409 


.383 


1895 


1,341,617 


.36 


1896 


1,347,793 


.31 


1898 


1,224,980 


.34 


Totals 


10,497,281 





$4,289,200 94 



Cooperage in 1897 is reported at about 25 cents a barrel, and in 
other years at proportionate rates, which should be added to the fore- 
going figures to give a correct idea of the magnitude of the Kansas 
salt industry. 



KANSAS. 73 

LEAD AND ZINC. 

The development of vast deposits of valuable lead and zinc ores in 
Southeast Kansas, succeeding the discovery of inexhaustible fields of 
coal in close proximity, has proven one of the most potent agencies in 
bringing Kansas before the scientific and commercial world, in that it 
opened up a new field for the expenditure of energy, and a safe investment 
to capital ; placed Kansas in the category of mineral and metal-produc- 
ing States of the Union, and added another jewel to Uncle Sam's crown 
by building up, in the midst of these great stores of nature, one of the 
largest zinc-producing cities in the world — Pittsburgh, Kansas. Early in 
the development of these mineral deposits it was discovered that only 
the richest ores could be handled, owing to the cost of transportation ; 
in fact, notwithstanding the care and labor expended in concentrating 
the ores, it dawned upon the mine owners that their " dumps" of low 
grade ore were growing to enormous proportions, and finally became a 
burden. It was then they cast about to secure a nearer market, and, 
with the inducement of cheap fuel at their very doors to oflfer, capitalists 
were persuaded to erect smelters to reduce their product to spelter, or 
commercial pig zinc. At first it was no less than an experiment, but the 
obstacles were overcome in time, and, in consequence, there are now in 
the district nine immense zinc-smelting plants, operating in the aggregate 
fifty-eight furnaces, which have a daily capacity of handling and reducing 
400,000 pounds of ore, which yield a product of 135,000 pounds of 
spelter. Of these smelters six are in Pittsburgh and one each in Weir 
City, Scammonville and Girard, the latter two with capacities of six and 
two furnaces respectively, while the Weir City plant is the largest zinc 
smelter in the United States, operating as it does six blocks, or twelve 
furnaces, and turning out 50,000 pounds of zinc spelter daily. Weir City 
and Pittsburgh are in the center of this rich coal and mineral bearing 
area. 

Pittsburgh has become a railway center second to few in the West, 
through these agencies, and the additional advantages held out by an 
inexhaustible supply of cheap fuel, which has brought numerous manu- 
facturing industries within her gates, with others continuously knocking 
for admission ; for with these lines of railway ramifying in every direc- 
tion, bringing raw material from, and distributing manufactured articles 
throughout Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Indian Territory and the great 



74 



KANSAS 



West, a field is drained of its staples, and a market created for the 
products of the factories exceeding in value any possessed by a new 
State. 

A decade ago Pittsburgh was struggling for an existence, to-day she 
has a population of 10,000. The product of the coal mines surrounding 
her, until a few years ago, was nominal, while the mines adjoining the 
coal belt on the south were in their infancy, to-day three thousand men 
are employed in the Pittsburgh coal mines, several hundred in the 
vicinity of Weir City, over a thousand in the zinc mines, and as many 
in the smelters of Pittsburgh and Weir City alone ; yet neither the coal 
fields nor mineral deposits are fully developed, in many places hardly 
prospected. 

The need for additional smelters is becoming more apparent daily ; 
indeed, so apparent has it become that the Weir City Smelting Company 
is arranging to double the capacity of their Pittsburgh plant as soon as 
practicable. Mr. A. W. Gifibrd, one of the best authorities on mining, 
and smelting in the West, has prepared some interesting figures regarding 
the earnings of the smelting plants of Pittsburgh and illustrative of what 
the investment of capital in this field would bring. Taking as a basis 
a capital of $100,000, he demonstrates the fact that, by using one-half the 
sum to construct a plant of eight furnaces, and reserving the balance 
for operating expenses, it would yield a thirty per cent dividend 
annually on the investment. Thus he reasons : Daily expenses, twenty- 
five tons ore at $23 per ton, $575; twenty-five tons fuel at fifty cents per 
ton, $37.50 ; repairs, supplies, and office expenses, $35 ; pay roll, $170 ; 
total, $817.50. Output, 20,000 pounds spelter at 4 J cents, $900. Net daily 
profit, $82.50, or for 365 days, $30,112.50. These figures are based on 
actual earnings of other plants. Mr. Gifibrd stakes his reputation upon 
the correctness of these calculations, and as his reputation as a careful 
and conservative man and an expert is beyond question, the estimate is 
worthy of notice. Mr. Gifibrd has made very thorough investigations 
of these subjects and would be glad to give the benefit of his researches 
to all inquiring. 

That the business is safe and profitable is evidenced by the fact of the 
Pittsburgh and St. Louis works adding six furnaces to their plant, the 
Granby adding two, and the Weir City Company planning to add four 
to their Pittsburgh plant, while no less than three companies have been 
organized for the purpose of each erecting eight furnace plants in 



76 KANSAS. 

Pittsburgh. In addition to these new movements it is proposed to put in 
one of the largest zinc rolUng mills in the country here, in order to more 
cheaply handle the products of the smelters. Already over 30 per cent 
of the zinc ores of the United States are smelted in this district, and, 
with the construction of this proposed rolling mill, additional smelting 
works will be put in at Pittsburgh with sufficient capacity to handle every 
pound of zinc ore produced in Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas, where 
over 60 per cent of the entire output of the United States is secured. 

Pittsburgh has recently added another star to her escutcheon, by 
securing the first plant of the Chick short-method process of smelting 
gold and silver ores ever put into active operation. The secret of profit- 
ably handling base clay and other refractory ores has been sought 
since scientific research was begun, but it was left for Mr. George H. 
Chick, one of the most practical and best informed chemists and mining 
men in the United States, to discover the secret, and it i§ the application 
of this secret that is working a revolution in the mining world of to-day. 
To Mr. Frank Playter, who has large coal interests near Pittsburgh, 
and Mr. Gifibrd, who is largely interested in mines in the republic of 
Mexico, is due much of the credit of securing to Pittsburgh this plant. 
True, Mr. Playter has fuel to sell, and Mr. Gifford, ore that must be worked 
by this process ; while they may be benefited, hundreds of others will 
also. That the plant has proven a grand success will be understood, 
when it is explained that it has been in operation but four months, and, 
although it has but twelve furnaces, it has paid a monthly dividend of 
5 per cent to its stockholders. So successful has been the plant that it 
has been determined by the directory to immediately increase the 
capacity of the works by adding fifty furnaces to the twelve now in 
operation, thus securing a capacity for handling 100 tons of ore daily. It 
is needless to say that the stockholders of this enterprise are more than 
gratified with the success attained, for the directory is receiving urgent 
propositions from difierent parts of the United States and from foreign 
countries, toward securing plants to treat their refractory ores by this 
process. 



KANSAS. 



77 



SHOWING AMOUNT AND VALUE OF METALLIC ZINC PRODUCED AT KANSAS 
SMELTERS, 1882 TO 1897, INCLUSIVE. 



Year. 

1882 

1883 

1884 

1885 

1886 

1887 

1888 

1889 

1890 

1891 

1892 

1893 

1894 

1895 

1896 

1897 



Totals for 16 years. 268,755 

Estimate of zinc smelted previous to 1882. 

Total 



Amount 


Price 




in short tons 


per ton in 


Total value. 


(2,000 lbs.) 


New York. 




7,366 


$110 60 


$ 814,679 60 


9,010 


90 60 


816,306 00 


7,859 


89 60 


704,466 40 


8,502 


86 80 


737,973 60 


8,932 


88 00 


786,016 00 


11,955 


92 40 


1,104,642 00 


10,432 


97 80 


1,020,269 60 


13,658 


100 00 


1,365,800 00 


15,199 


108 60 


1,650,611 40 


22,747 


100 40 


2,283,798 80 


24,715 


92 20 


2,278,723 00 


22,815 


80 00 


1,725,200 00 


25,588 


70 20 


1,896,277 60 


25,775 


72 00 


1,855,800 00 


20,759 


79 88 


1 657,328 82 


33,443 


82 40 


2,755,703 20 



$23,453,596 12 
2,575,000 00 



$26,028,596 12 



SHOWING OUTPUT OF LEAD AND ZINC ORES, GALENA DISTRICT, CHEROKEE 
COUNTY, KANSAS. 

From January 1, 1886, to December 31, 1897. 





Zinc Ore. 


Lead Ore. 




Year. 


Tons, 
2000 lbs. 


Average 

price 
per ton. 


Yalue. 


Pounds. 


Average 
price per 
1000 lbs. 

$29 50 


Value. 
$174,766 38 


Total value 
of output. 


1886 


31,768 


$18 50 


$587,708 00 


5,924,284 


$762,474 38 


1887 


^2'795 


19 00 


623,105 00 


6,152,380 


26 25 


161,499 98 


784,604 98 


1888 


33,391 


21 00 


701,211 00 


5,248,000 


15 50 


81,344 00 


782,555 00 


1889 


32,950 


24 00 


790,800 00 


7,985,000 


23 00 


183,655 00 


974,455 00 


1890 


21,675 


23 00 


498,525 00 


8,347,927 


21 14 


176,176 28 


674,701 28 


1891 


20,641 


21 51 


454.102 00 


7,204,420 


25 16 


182,271 83 


636,373 83 


1892 


23,811 


20 00 


476,237 78 


14,376,840 


21 00 


301,903 14 


778,140 92 


1893 


25,028 


18 85 


471,789 00 


10,279,180 


19 00 


195,314 42 


667,103 42 


1894 


28,670 


17 10 


490,257 00 


11,634,980 


16 82 


195,794 66 


686,051 66 


1895 


41,23.". 


19 68 


812,792 00 


25,075,290 


19 28 


482.548 75 


1,295,340 75 


1896 


62,232 


22 51 


1.401,307 83 


28,123,170 


16 02 


450,529 90 


1,851,837 73 


1897 


59,451 


25 17 


1,492,663 04 


30,369.360 


25 10 


762,469 96 


2,255,133 00 


Totals . 


413,644 
3d value 




88,800,497 65 


160,720,331 





$3,348,274 30 


812,148,771 95 


Estimat 


of metal 


from 


same.... 




$16,073,035 00 






4,017,829 00 


20,090,864 00 













Estimated total production of ore from 1876 to 1897, inclusive, $25,000,000. 
Producing metallic zinc and lead with value of $35,000,000. 



78 KANSAS. 

STONE, BRICK AND LIME. 

Stone suitable for building purposes is found in abundance in nearly 
all parts of the State. The varieties include magnesian limestone, blue 
and gray limestone, and great quantities of sandstone, and of flagging 
stone. Stone from the Kansas quarries is used in some of the finest 
buildings in the country. For churches, court houses, State and 
municipal buildings, nothing can be found superior to the product of 
the various quarries of the State. 

Material suitable for the manufacture of ordinary brick exists every- 
where. The bars along the water courses furnish sand. The limestone 
affords abundant supply of low-priced quicklime. Indeed, all the 
requisites of building exist in abundance, and are consequently 
remarkably cheap in all parts of the State. 

COAL. 

Coal has been mined, in Kansag, to a limited extent, for over thirty 
years. Immediately after the war, settlers came to Kansas by the 
thousands, and it was these early settlers, who, in Cherokee and in 
Crawford Counties, began mining coal, in 1866. These veins of coal' 
were on the surface, and a good deal of the mining was done with a 
plow and a team. This supplied the local demand, and also furnished 
some to the adjoining territory in Missouri, where it was conveyed in 
wagons. It was some years later, when the heavy veins of coal, now 
so extensively mined, were discovered, and work was begun upon 
them. 

At the present time, coal is mined in about twenty counties, with 
slight variations in number, from year to year. These eoal-producing 
counties are as follows: Atchison, Bourbon, Brown, Chautauqua, 
Cherokee, Cloud, Coffey, Crawford, Douglas, Elk, Franklin, Labette, 
Leavenworth, Linn, Lyon, Montgomery, Neosho, Osage, Shawnee and 
Wilson. 

The counties named in the western part of the State, produce a 
brown coal, which is somewhat inferior, in quality, to that mined in 
the eastern counties, but it has a special value on account of the price 
of coal in the western portion of the State. 



80 



KANSAS. 



The coals of Kansas are all bituminous, or soft coals. Those in the 
southeast are the most valuable, a ton, for all purposes. Space does 
not permit a detailed description of the different qualities of Kansas 
coal. 

Coal is Kansas' greatest mining output. The value has reached 
many millions. For years it has been about $4,000,000 per annum. 
As the price has reduced, the output at the mines has steadily increased, 
with the result that the total value has remained surprisingly constant. 

The coal mines of Kansas have been of inestimable value to the 
State, as without them the industries of zinc and lead smelting could 
not have been developed to their present high standing. 

The following table of the coal production of the State, from 1880 to 
1897, inclusive, with price per ton, and the value of the yearly product, 
will give some idea of the magnitude of the industry. 



SHOWING COAL PRODUCTION IN SHORT TONS, FROM 1880 TO 1897, 
INCLUSIVE. 

With price per ton, and value of yearly product. 

Production in Value of 

short tons Price yearly 

Year. (2,000 pounds) . per ton. product. 

1880* 550,000 $1 30 $ 715,000 

1881* 750,000 1 35 1,012,300 

1882* 750,000 1 30 975,000 

1883*.. 900,000 1 28 1,152,000 

1884* 1,100,000 1 25 1,375,000 

1885 1,440,057 1 23 1,770,270 

1886 1,350,000 1 20 1,620,000 

1887 1,570,079 1 40 2,198,110 

1888 1,700,000 1 50 2,550,000 

1889 2,112,166 1 48 3,126,005 

1890 2,516,054 1 30 3,170,870 

1891 2,753,722 131 3,607,375 

1892* 3,007,276 1 31>^ 3,954,568 

1893 2,881,931 -137)^ 3,960,331 

1894 3,611,214 1 35^ 4,899,774 

1895 3,190,843 1 12>^ 3,590,141 

1896 3,191,748 1 OIK 3,227,357 

1897 3,672,195 1 07 3,931,707 

Totals 37,047,285 $46,835,808 

Output previous to 1880. 3,000,000 $150 4,500,000 

Grand totals, 40,047,285 $51,335,808 

♦Figures for 1880 to 1884, inclusive, and for 1892, taken from United States Geological 
Sxxrvey Reports. All others taken from Reports of State Inspector of Coal Mines. 



82 KANSAS. 



OIL AND GAS. 



Kansas is fast becoming an important factor in the production of oil, 
and has achieved no small distinction as a producer of natural gas. 
The history of the discovery and development of gas and oil in the 
State is a long and interesting one, but can only be hinted at here. 
The following matter on this topic is taken from the work on the 
"Mineral Resources of Kansas," by Prof. Erasmus Haworth, of the 
State University : 

"In a number of different places in the State, the earlier settlers 
learned from the Indians that oil springs existed, were accounted of 
wonderful efficacy by the Indians, and they frequently visited them 
for the purpose of obtaining material to be used by their medicine men 
in their various ceremonies. As this was at the time when the de- 
velopment of the Pennsylvania oil fields was attracting such wide 
attention, the discovery excited much interest. Wells drilled in the 
neighborhood of Wyandotte furnished considerable quantities of gas, 
which was something almost unknown at that time in this country. 
As early as 1860, prospecting for oil was undertaken in the vicinity of 
Paola, but discontinued on account of the political difficulties that 
arose at that time. 

From the earliest days of Kansas history there has been great faith 
in the possibilities of the development of a great oil and gas industry 
in the Eastern part of Kansas. 

In 1882, prospecting was renewed in Miami County, and gas was 
found in the wells which were drilled about seven miles northeast of 
Paola, and in sufficient quantities to be piped to the city of Paola, and 
there used as an illuminant and fuel in the residence and business 
portions of the city. In 1873 a well w a? bored at lola, which produced 
sufficient gas to attract considerable attention, and to encourage the 
prospecting in other localities. 

This prospecting was continued throughout the entire southeastern 
part of the State, and with the encouraging result that before 1890 no 
fewer than a dozen large towns and cities were lighted and heated by 
the use of natural gas for all domestic purposes. 




Univ. Geol. Surv. of Kansas. 

THE OLIVER OIL WELL, NEODESHA. 



84 KANSAS. 

After the success of the local companies, it was a comparatively easy 
matter to induce parties of means and experience to come to Kansas, 
and engage in the development of the oil and gas fields. The area 
through which gas and oil have been found is about 8,500 square miles 
in extent, and is located entirely in the southeastern part of the State, 
as far as known at present. To the northwest, a few wells have been 
drilled that yielded gas and oil, but the prospecting has not been 
carried far enough to determine the extent of producing region out- 
side of the territory indicated. The most productive region has Neo- 
desha and Thayer as its center. 

Until recently there has been but little information concerning the 
physical properties of the Kansas gases and oils. The lubricating oils 
sold from Paola have been tested, and found to be superior lubricants, 
and the gas, from all wells alike, have been shown to be of the highest 
quality, and surpassed by the natural gas in no locality. 

GYPSUM. 

Fifteen years ago, the use of plaster of paris in the plastering of 
ordinary buildings, was almost entirely unknown. The white plaster 
of paris has been used, for years, as an outer covering, but it is now 
becoming more and more used in the place of the common lime plaster, 
and in time will probably supplant it for use in the higher grades of 
work, and where quick drying is an essential. Walls plastered with 
this material are in every way more serviceable, look better, and can 
be papered immediately after the plaster dries, where the lime plaster 
will discolor paper. As modern improvements have overcome the 
difficulty experienced at first, from the too rapid setting of the plaster 
of paris, the demand for it has steadily grown for use in ordinary 
plastering. 

Kansas has a large amount of gypsum from which the best hard 
cement plaster can be made. The gypsum occurs in two somewhat 
different forms, one in the form of a rock, so that it is quarried in the 
same manner as other stones, and another in the form of small crys- 
talline grains that produce a mass looking much like sand. This latter 



KANSAS. 85 

form is generally spoken of as " gypsum dirt," although in the greater 
number of places the quality of the material is of such purity that the 
term "dirt" is a misnomer. 

The localities in Kansas where gypsum exists may be briefly summed 
up as follows : First, the northern area, in the vicinity of Blue Rapids, 
where the rock form occurs in great abundance, to the southwest of 
Blue Rapids gypsum is found, though not in quantities sufficient to 
repay mining until Solomon City is reached, where the material is found 
some distance below the surface of the ground. The Crown Plaster 
Co., of Solomon City, has recently been consolidated with the Kansas 
Cement Plaster Co., which mines gypsum at Hope, at a depth of about 
eighty feet below the surface. While the gypsum is not so prominent 
here as it is in the vicinity of Blue Rapids, the output is amply equal 
to any calls that are made upon it. South and southwest from Hope, 
gypsum is found in the neighborhood of Peabody, and of Newton, and 
for many miles to the south of these points. Farther west, in Barber 
County it is found in great quantities. The rough hill country to the 
southwest of Medicine Lodge is covered with gypsum which covers the 
hill-tops here, as do limestone and sandstone elsewhere. In some 
places the thickness is from twenty to thirty feet, occupies an area of 
many miles square, and is sufficient to supply the world with hard 
plaster for many years. 

The Salina Cement Company has a large plant at Dillon, on the 
Missouri Pacific Railway, in the southern part of Dickinson County, 
and manufactures the "Agatite" brand. It would occasion no surprise 
should other deposits be found, equaling or surpassing in value, those 
already found, as gypsum is known to exist in nearly all the valleys of 
the little streams throughout the Permian area of Central Kansas, and 
these deposits are but awaiting the investment of capital and proper 
enterprise for their development. 

Space will not permit a detailed statement of the various processes 
made use of by the Kansas factories in the manufacture of plaster from 
the gypsum dirt, or the rock variety, but a few words on the commerce 
of Kansas plasters will not be out of place 

Kansas cement plasters have made their way into almost all the 
markets of America. They have traveled eastward to New York and to 



86 KANSAS. 

Boston, and westward to San Francisco. Occasionally sales are made 
to points as far north as Minneapolis, and as far south as New Orleans, 
but by far the greater part of the Kansan product is disposed of to 
points west of the Ohio. In the face of all difficulties, the superior 
quality of the Kansas product has enabled it to compete, and suc- 
cessfully to compete, in some of the Eastern markets with materials 
manufactured much nearer the point of consumption. 

The following table gives the output and value of hard plaster from 
the Kansas mines for the year 1897, and for preceding years: 



Year. 

1889. 
1890. 
1891. 
1892. 
1893. 
1894. 
1895. 
1896. 
1897. 



Output. 

in tons 

(2,000 pounds). 

17,332 
20,250 
40,217 
41,016 
43,631 
64,889 
72,947 
49,335 
50,045 



Average 

Price 
per ton. 

15 44 
3 58 



399,762 



Value 

of 

Output. 

$ 94,235 
72,457 
161,322 
195,197 
181,599 
301,884 
272,531 
148,371 
262,811 

$1,680,407 



Figures for the years 1889 to 1896, inclusive, are taken from the 
report of the United States Geological Survey. 

HYDRAULIC CEMENT. 



Hydraulic cement rock was first discovered at Fort Scott, in 1867, 
and small works were established the following year. In the two years 
succeeding, these works were increased till they produced ten barrels a 
day. Two factories are now in successful operation, producing a very 
high grade of cement at the rate of 160,000 barrels per annum. 

The first full car-load of Fort Scott cement was shipped in 1870, and 
was used in the construction of the Arkansas River bridge. In 1874 
the cement was used in the Kansas City, Mo., water works, where the 
reservoirs built in that year are still in excellent condition, after 
twenty-four years of constant use. 



88 KANSAS. 

Owing to improved machinery, the cost of the cement has been re- 
duced, in the last few years, till it is now about seventy-five cents a 
barrel, free on board cars, at the factory. The product of the mills is 
used by nearly all the railroads throughout the State, and the ship- 
ments to other markets are very large. 

The attached table shows the value of the output: 

SHOWING AMOUNT AND VALUE OF HYDRAULIC CEMENT PRODUCED IN KANSAS. 

The figures from 1888 to 1896, inclusive, arc based upon the reports given by the 
U. S. Gcol .igical Survej-. 

Price Value 

Year. Barrels. barrel. of output, 

1888 40,000 75cts. $30,000 

1889 150,000 70 '* 105.000 

1890 150,000 70 *' 105,000 

1891 140,000 69 " 97,440 

1892* 110,000 69 " 77,000 

1893 60,000 35 " 21,000 

1894 50,009 50 *' 25,000 

1895 140,000 40 " 56,000 

1896 125,567 40 '« 50,226 

1897 160,000 40 " 64,000 

Totals 1,125,567 $600,666 

♦Includes Kansas City, Mo. 

KAFIR CORN. 

. In recent years, Kafir corn has attracted considerable attention from 
the farmers of the West, and as considerable ignorance has been 
exhibited in regard to the nature, the use, and the manner of culti- 
vation of Kafir corn, the following condensation from the United 
States Farmers' Bulletin, No. 37, prepared by Prof. C. C. Georgeson, 
of the Kansas State Agricultural College, is given, in the hope that it 
may give to those who know nothing of the Kafir corn some idea of 
its great usefulness, and explain the popularity which it at present 
enjoys in the West: 

"Kafir corn is a native of South Africa, and the name is derived 
from that African tribe known as Kafirs. It belongs to the same 
group of plants as broom corn, and other non-saccharine sorghums. 
It w^s introduced by the Department of Agriculture about ten years 
ago, and sent all over the country. It was first tried in the Southern 
States, where it did remarkably well, and the year following it was 



KANSAS. 89 

sent to the Northern and Western States. The reports of the trials of 
the corn were almost uniformly favorable. In California, it was 
highly appreciated, and soon took high rank as a food for chickens. 
The farmers of Kansas and Oklahoma have given it much attention 
during the last three or four years, and, finding it a valuable stock 
food, are cultivating it on a large and ever-increasing scale. Its 
drought-resisting qualities render it particularly well-adapted to culti- 
vation in regions where the dryness militates against the proper 
development of corn, and in all places makes it a valuable additional 
crop, to guard against possible failures. 

"At present, there are at least three of the varieties of non-saccharine 
sorghums that are called Kafir corn, and they may be described as 
follows: 

" Red Kafir Corn. — The plant is from four to six feet tall, according 
to soil, season and culture. The stalk is close jointed, producing from 
nine to fourteen leaves. Leaves are thick, somewhat rough, and are 
,stiffer than corn leaves. The plant rarely suckers, but it will occa- 
sionally throw out branches from the upper joints. The sheaths are 
generally covered red, or purple, in patches or spots, due to a blight. 
The seed is red, or light brown, small, almost round, brittle, starchy, 
and packed so closely in the head that the stems and hulls are hardly 
visible. The hulls are small, thin, and brown, covering less than half 
of each seed. 

"White Kafir Corn. — Like the red variety, the plant is short- 
jointed, and has an abundance of foliage, but does not grow so tall. 
The seed is white, slightly flattened sidewise, starchy, and pleasant to 
the taste. The hulls are gray, or greenish-white, somewhat larger and 
more conspicuous than those of the red variety. The ripe seed shells 
out readily in handling. 

"Black-Hulled White Kafir Corn (African Millet).— The plant 
is like the variety just described. The head is somewhat shorter, 
broader, and looser than that of the red variety ; sometimes narrow 
below and broad above— club-shaped. Seed is white, many grains 
having a reddish or a brown spot; somewhat larger than the red. 
The head shoots clear of the enveloping sheath. It goes by the three 
names of 'black-hulled white Kafir corn,' 'white Kafir corn,' and 
'African millet.' 



90 KANSAS. 

"The red and the white varieties have been grown at the Kansas 
Experiment Station for some years, with the following result: 

''Under the same conditions, the red variety has invariably out- 
yielded the white, both in grain and in fodder; it grows some six to 
nine inches taller; it matures the seed a little earlier, and the head 
always pushes clear of the upper sheath, and further, does not shell in 
handling. On the other hand, the white variety has a pleaaanter taste, 
and produces grain that is not at all astringent, and on that account is 
better relished by stock. 

"The black-hulled white Kafir corn has been grown here only in the 
last season (1896), but it appears to have all the good qualities of the 
red variety, and to have, in addition, the white seed. If further tests 
establish that the black-hulled white variety yields as well as the red, 
it will undoubtedly become the most popular of the three. 

"Although Kafir corn will grow where other grains will die out, it, 
in common with all crops, does better on rich land, and responds well 
to generous treatment. Its culture is not limited, however, to soils of 
certain classes and qualities. It may be grown on stiff clays and on 
light sand, in river bottoms and on poor uplands, and it will yield 
profitable returns on soil too poor for the successful cultivation of corn. 

"The strongest recommendation for Kafir corn is that it will produce 
a crop on less rain than is required for corn, and better resists the 
action of hot winds. It is, therefore, especially well-adapted to culti- 
vation in the semi-arid West, where corn is injured by the hot winds 
and the drought. 

"When corn has once been stunted by hot winds, it never recovers, 
but not so with Kafir corn. It may be stationary and curled for days, 
and even weeks, but when the rain comes and the hot winds cease, it 
will revive, and if not too late in the season, will still produce a crop- 

"While it can be grown to perfection in southern and middle lati- 
tudes, the northern limit of its successful culture is not well defined. 

"The soil should be prepared as for corn. If the surface is rough, it 
should be reduced with a pulverizer till even, as such a surface facili- 
tates cultivation. 

"Seeding takes place about the middle of March in the South, to 
about June in the North. In the experiments, at the Kansas station, 
the seed is usually put in the ground about the middle of May. 



KANSAS. 91 

"The Kafir corn can be grown either in hills or in drills, but the 
latter is considered preferable. Kafir corn is sometimes sown for hay, 
and is sown thick, either with a drill or broadcast, and the crop, when 
headed, cut with a mower, and treated as a hay crop. If cut early, it 
may produce two crops. 

For the best methods of harvesting, and of handling the grain after, 
and the method of thrashing, the reader is referred to the various 
publications of the Department of Agriculture. 

"The yield an acre of grain and of fodder must, of course, vary with 
the season. The red variety, as grown at the Kansas station, has 
invariably outyielded both the White Kafir corn and Indian corn. 
The average yields an acre for the years 1889, 1890, 1891 and 1892, of 
these three, were as follows : 

Grain, Fodder, 

Variety. bushels. tons. 

Red Kafir corn 58.25 6.05 

White Kafir corn 32.55 5.33 

Indian corn 45.50 3.07 

"The grain refers to the clean seed, 56 pounds to the bushel, and the 
fodder yields to the field-cured weight. 

"While Kafir corn may not be quite equal to Indian corn as a food 
for stock, in some particulars, it is demonstrated beyond a shadow of a 
doubt that Kafir corn has remarkable value as food stuff, and has the 
additional value of being reliable in the semi-arid regions, where Indian 
corn can not be relied upon, even with irrigation, in some cases, on 
account of hot winds. 



HUNTING AND FISHING. 

Once upon a time, and not so very long ago either, the shaggy-fronted 
buflfalo roamed in countless herds over the Kansas plains. That day is 
past, of course. Deer and antelope, once plentiful all over the State, are 
not found now in the eastern portion, but in the western section they are 
still seen, and furnish the hunter with all the pleasurable excitement of 
big game shooting. 

There is plenty of small game in Kansas, and in season the markets 
are well stocked with quail, ducks, prairie chickens, plover, curlew, 
snipe, geese, rabbits, etc. By legislative enactment prairie chickens and 



92 KANSAS. 

quail are protected until well grown, and are shot only in October, 
November and December. Netting and trapping game birds are prohib- 
ited, and, as the shelter of hedge and timber increases, quail are multi- 
plying all over the State. 

From October to April wild geese and ducks abound, feeding on the 
wheat fields in day time and seeking the rivers and ponds at night. 

We have known a single sportsman to bring down from fifty to one 
hundred geese and ducks in one day, all conditions being favorable. 

The ducks, which are of all varieties, from the delicate teal to the far- 
famed canvas back, Mallard, sprigtail, butter ball, spoonbill, red head, 
etc., abound — a few nesting in the State and staying through the year, 
though the great majority migrate. 

In April several varieties of plover appear, and the smaller kinds 
afford good sport all during the spring and fall. The large brown plover 
and curlew are plenty in April and May, but go north for the summer. 

While Kansas sportsmen ought to be satisfied with such a goodly 
array of game, they sometimes lay for heavier prey, and consequently 
will frequently be found silently folding their tents and quietly stealing 
over the border into Uncle Sam's great game preserve of the Indian Ter- 
ritory, There the wild turkeys still exist in great numbers. Deer are 
abundant, and occasionally a black bear may be seen in the canons of the 
Medicine river. 

Kansas does not claim to be a great State for fishing, still all the streams 
with rock bottom abound in the gamey black bass, and favored sports- 
men have caught specimens weighing over seven pounds. In the streams 
and ponds of sandy or muddy bottom, are found catfish, buffalo, eels? 
sunfish, perch, and occasionally a wall-eyed pike. The German carp is 
being cultivated, and thrives in Kansas waters. 

It is emphatically true, as shown by the post office returns, that the 
citizens of Kansas are a reading people. As a rule, the press of Kansas 
is able and public spirited, and it has had its full share in achieving for 
the State its wonderful progress at home, and in winning for it its honor- 
able reputation abroad. From the peculiar circumstances connected 
with its early history the newspaper press of Kansas has always drawn 
superior men to the ranks of its editors. Among them are men who, in 
point of knowledge of books and the world, of wit and humor, of clear 
and forcible style, of fearless and chivalric courage, are easily the equals 
of the most distinguished editors this country has produced. 



KANSAS. 93 



THE GRASSHOPPERS THAT HOP IN KANSAS. 

Some people imagine that the principal product of the western States 
is grasshoppers. 

Many Easterners fear to emigrate to the West, having a great dread 
that they'll be eaten by the grasshoppers, and leave their bones on the 
dry and unproductive " Great American Desert." 

The "American Desert," by the way, is fast becoming a fiction of the 
past. Time was when the majority of folk east of the Mississippi Valley 
shuddered when they thought of this desert ; the horrors had been 
pictured in the glowing words of the space-writer of the press, whose 
"imagination bodies forth the form of things unknown, and gives to 
airy nothings a local habitation and a name." 

The name has lingered in the minds of men, but the location has 
become a matter of uncertainty. 

The boundaries have been crowded closer together by the push of 
civilization, and as the area of this supposed desert has been taken up 
and cultivated, it has been found that some of the best, the richest, and 
the moat productive of the farming lands of America had been neglected. 
The winds and wild animals held undisputed possession of millions of 
acres where are now fertile farms and richly productive orchards. 

There have been times in the past when swarms of locusts devastated 
the entire country there, devoured everything that could be eaten, and 
left it completely stripped of vegetation. 

Other insect enemies may inflict a damage equal to that done by the 
locusts, during the year, but as it is not done in so short a space of time, 
nor in so plain sight, it is, comparatively, unnoticed. 

Various causes combine in permitting these insects to increase beyond 
the normal number. During a succession of abnormally dry years, most 
locusts increase because they are then less liable to the attacks of diseases 
that are prevalent in moist seasons, as many parasitic insects die off, thus 
removing several influences restrictive of the undue increase of locusts. 

Man, with his numerous devices for the extermination of insect pests, 
has done much to prevent the increase of the locusts ; but the greater 
good is accomplished by the natural enemies of these insects, the birds 
that spend the greater part of their lives in the assiduous pursuit of 
these same insects, and devour them as eggs, young, or old. 



94 



KANSAS. 



It is of paramount importance that the native birds of the State receive 
the protection to which they are entitled. When prairie chickens and 
grouse were numerous no harm whatever was reported as being done 
by " native grasshoppers." Qaail, plover, blackbirds, sparrows, hawks, 
and even ducks are known to feed largely upon these insects. A single 
bird of any of these species will destroy thousands of insects during the 
spring, summer, and fall months. When the birds are destroyed, these 
extra thousands of insects increase beyond the normal, and injury to 




GRANT MONUMENT, FT. LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS. 

crops follows. Year after year the gap is wider and the possibilities of 
harm increase. 

In the absence of the birds, and of any fungus disease that is efficient 
in destroying the grasshoppers (the fungus disease attacking them is 
unlike the one that attacks chinch-bugs, being much slower in its action) > 
artificial remedies must be resorted to to protect the farmer. 

If careful observation is made to see where eggs are deposited in large 
numbers, they can be destroyed by harrowing the ground and exposing 
them to the action of the sun, and to the forays of hungry birds. Deep 
plowing during fall and early in the spring, will bury the locust eggs so 
deeply that the young hopper cannot reach the surface. 

The best way of destroying the insects, however, is by the use of the 
kerosene pan, in common parlance the " hopper dozer." 



KANSAS. 96 

This is made of stove-pipe iron, by turning up the sides and ends 
about four inches, so as to make a long flat pan, about four inches in 
depth. This is then mounted on runners, varying in height from two to 
eight or ten inches, according to requirements of the crop to be protected, 
and the age of the insects to be captured. For use the pan is filled with 
water and then coal oil is added. If the ground is level no cross-pieces 
are needed, but if the pan is to be used on sloping ground, there must 
be cross-pieces to prevent the oil and water from running to one end of 
the " hopper dozer." The machine may be made any length desired up 
to sixteen and eighteen feet. If small, it can be drawn by hand, but 
when large a horse or two is preferable. 

When the kerosene pan is full the grasshoppers are removed, a little 
more oil added, and the machine started again. 

The cost of this remedy is trifling, and it is most eflicient. 

In a garden chickens are valuable, and turkeys are of even greater 
service. 



THE VALUE OF CORN AS FUEL. 

The present abundance of corn and its low price has occasioned 
much speculation as to its fuel value. There is such a diversity of 
opinion and so little actual knowledge regarding the profitableness of 
buying corn instead of coal, that it seemed desirable to conduct a com- 
parative test that would show the relative heating power of the two 
materials. 

Whether it would pay to raise corn for fuel is a question not contem- 
plated in this investigation, but the interests of the large number of 
people living in the region of cheap corn call for the determination of its 
most profitable use after it is upon the market. 

To make the test, a good grade of yellow dent corn, on the ear, of this 
year's crop, and not thoroughly dry, wag burned under the boiler used 
to supply power for the department of practical mechanics, and the 
amount of water evaporated by burning a known quantity of corn was 
noted. The test lasted nine and one-half hours, and 5,232 pounds of 
corn and cob were consumed. The next day the same boiler was heated 
with screened Rock Springs nut coal for five hours, burning 1,888 pounds 
of coal, and the amount of water evaporated was recorded. 



96 KANSAS. 

The data thus obtained showed that one pound of coal evaporated one 
and nine-tenths as much water as one pound of corn ; that is, one and 
one-tenth times as much heat was liberated in burning one pound of 
coal as in one pound of corn. 

Several calorimeter tests were made which agreed very closely with 
these results. 

The coal used cost at Lincoln $6.65 a ton. "With coal selling at this 
price, and worth one and nine-tenths times as much for fuel as an equal 
weight of corn, the fuel value of the latter would be $3.50 a ton or 12.25 
cents a bushel. 

The following table shows how much coal is worth a ton, when its 
heating power is the same as that used in the experiment, and when 
corn is selling at a certain price per bushel : 

Corn, per bushel. Coal, per ton. 

9 cents $4 87 

• 10 cents 5.41 

11 cents 595 

12 cents 6 49 

13 cents 7.11 

14 cents 7.57 

15 cents 8 11 

It will thus be seen that if this quality of coal were selling at $6.50, 
and corn were bringing ten cents, it would not pay to burn corn ; while 
coal must sell as low as $5.41 per ton to be as cheap fuel as corn at 
ten cents per bushel. 

A very complete and thorough investigation of this subject is being 

conducted at the university. It was thought desirable, however, to 

publish the results already obtained, although they were based upon the 

performance of but one quality of coal. This coal is well known and 

largely used in the State. 

[Press Bulletin Number 8, Agricultural Experiment Station, 
University of Nebraska.] 



KANSAS. 97 

IN CONCLUSION. 

WESTERN KANSAS. 

Southeastern Colorado, near the Kansas line, is making a great agri- 
cultural development, and attracting a large volume of immigration, 
which comes largely through Kansas and will aid in bringing settlers to 
this State. 

There is now being constructed, just north of Lamar, in eastern Colo- 
rado, the most extensive storage reservoir system for irrigation purposes 
in that State, and this for the purpose of furnishing an immense supply 
of water for the Amity canal, which extends over into Kansas about 
forty miles and is being extended still further across Hamilton and into 
Kearney county. These reservoirs will have an area of about 12,000 
acres, and an irrigation capacity for 200,000 acres. This system, which is 
known as "The Great Plains Water Storage System," will cost in the 
neighborhood of half a million dollars, and will be completed this year 
(1898). Its eflfect upon the settlement and development of the extreme 
western part of Kansas will be very great. The enterprise is in strong 
hands, with almost a limitless amount of capital back of it, and cannot 
fail of successful completion and operation. 

These favoring conditions in neighboring territory are supplemented 
by the manifest increasing desire of people in the west-central and 
eastern States to move west. The enormous prices of lands, and high 
rents, in the great States east of the Mississippi river, are forcing farmers, 
particularly the younger ones, to the West, and the last year's agricul- 
tural results have emphasized so strongly the superlative farming advan- 
tages offered here, that they are certain to attract large numbers of these 
classes to the State, who will quickly take up the lands which can now 
be had so cheaply. Lands which on a basis of $10 to $20 per acre pay 
for themselves in one crop, cannot long go begging at $5. 

LASTING PROSPERITY. 

Supplementing the favorable local conditions is the great revival and 
improvement in the general business conditions of the country. We 



ys KANSAS. 

have evidently entered upon a continuing period of higher prices for 
agricultural products. We shall not again in this century, and probably 
not in many years, if ever, see such a period of excessively low prices 
for all farm products as we passed through in 1895 and 1896. Prosperity 
is here. The bank clearings of the country for the last week of the old 
year showed an increase of 42 per cent over the corresponding week of 
1896. The balance of trade with the Old World is largely in our favor. 
The number of business failures and accompanying liabilities during 




PLOWING IN KANSAS. 

1897 were much less than in 1896. Railroad earnings show a large 
increase. Our foreign commerce is increasing. Our exports for 1897 are 
reported to be the largest in our history, and excess of merchandise 
exports over imports is estimated at $350,000,000. Prosperity has come 
to stay ; the outlook for Kansas is most promising. 

Although during the year 1897 the people of Kansas have paid off 
$30,000,000 of indebtedness, the deposits in Kansas banks show an 
increase of 50 per cent at this time over those of one year ago, now 
aggregating about $50,000,000, and are heavier than at any time in the 



KANSAS. 99 

last ten years, and what is more important, they belong almost wholly 
to individual depositors, Kansas people, rather than, as during the boom, 
largely to loan companies and Eastern people, who sent their money out 
here for investment, to be withdrawn later on. 

The foregoing figures and facts revealed by this retrospect, furnish the 
causes from which to predict effects, a foundation upon which to rest a 
judgment of the present prospects of Kansas. 

OUR MINING OUTPUT. 

In 1890, the amount of coal mined in the State was 2,260,000 tons ; in 
1897, it reached an estimated total of 3,200,000 tons, an increase of 40 
per cent. 

In 1888, the total amount of lead ore mined was only five and a 
quarter million pounds, value $81,000; in 1897, it reached an estimated 
total of 45,000,000 pounds, worth $1,000,000. 

In 1890, the first year of which we have an accurate record, there were 
15,000 tons of zinc spelter manufactured. In 1897, this product is esti- 
mated at over 30,000 tons. 

In 1890, the value of gypsum cement manufactured was $72,000. In 
1897, it is estimated at $325,000, an increase of 350 per cent. In 1894, the 
first year when the United States report gives the hydraulic cement out- 
put of the State, the value of this product was but $25,000. In 1897, it is 
estimated at $125,000, an increase of 500 per cent. 

The production of petroleum in this State has just commenced. It is 
certain that there is a vast supply of it, and its production from now on 
will cut an important figure in swelling our revenue, and in our conse- 
quent prosperity. 

The total value of the mineral output of the State for 1897 approxi- 
mates $9,000,000, and shows a good increase in all its lines over the 
previous year, with almost a certainty of a greater increase in 1898. 
Thus is seen every internal evidence of growth, great present prosperity 
and still greater at hand. The external conditions are equally favorable. 
Oklahoma, which for several years made such heavy drafts upon Kansas, 
has become a well-settled, prosperous region, with its great fields of corn, 
wheat and cotton, and no longer draws upon Kansas resources, but is a 
helpful neighbor. 



100 KANSAS. 



CITIES. 



There are eight cities in Kansas with populations ranging from 10,000 
to 50,000. Twenty-eight cities with 2,500 and upwards, and sixty-five 
cities containing 1,000 and upwards. 

It may, perhaps, be well to speak briefly of some of these more 
important cities. As our space is limited, an eflort w^ll be made 
under this head to give facts without elaboration ; to furnish the 
reader with information he will most need in regard to the cities of 
Kansas. It is presumed that this book will be largely used by farmers, 
mechanics, artisans and laborers. The interest of this class of readers in 
the cities of the State lies along the line of markets and opportunities 
for employment. Here, then, are the facts and figures carefully con- 
densed. 

TOPEKA. 

Capital of the State and County seat of Shawnee county. 

Population, 35,000. 

its public schools employ 117 teachers. 

Four great railroad systems enter the city, where official headquarters, 
workshops, etc., give employment to at least 3,000 men. 

It is the most important milling center west of St. Louis; there being 
nine mills with a capacity of 8,500 barrels per day. 

The principal streets are from eighty to one hundred and thirty feet 
in width, and the residence streets are beautifully parked and shaded. 
Ten miles of street are paved with asphalt, stone, cedar blocks, and 
vitrified brick, costing over $1,100,000. 

The United States Court House, Pension Office and Post Office Build- 
ing, erected in 1882, at a cost of $300,000, occupies a prominent corner in 
the business center of the city. 

The State Asylum for the Insane is located west of the city, on spacious 
grounds, and occupies five immense buildings, recently erected, with all 
modern improvements. 

The State Reform School is located on a fine farm of one hundred and 
sixty acres, north of the city, and has four large buildings with accommo- 
dations for two hundred boys. 



KANSAS. 101 

There are over one hundred church organizations in the city, occupy- 
ing forty-eight church edifices. Many of these are magnificent struc- 
tures, and the church property is valued at $622,000. The bishops of 
the Methodist Episcopal and Episcopal churches reside here, and 
preparations are made for the construction of an Episcopal Cathedral 
to cost 1250,000. 

The Topeka Free Public Library occupies a beautiful building on the 
State House grounds, erected for its special use at a cost of $50,000. It 
contains over 10,000 volumes. 

State Library, owned by the State of Kansas, is one of the largest 
and best in the country, and is open to all during business hours. 

Library of the State Historical Society is also kept in the State House. 
It contains 35,000 volumes, and is particularly rich in historical works. 

There are fourteen banks in Topeka, with a combined capital of 
$3,000,000. 

The city is lighted with electric lights, and has a telephone system. 

The State Printing House employs 420 hands and pays out $261,000 in 
wages annually. 

Packing houses employ a large number of men, and do a business of 
$350,000 per annum. 

Two sash and door factories, with a business of over $200,000. 

Starch works, paying in wages $1,000 monthly. 

Boiler works, brick yards, feed mills, linseed oil mills, preserving 
works, cracker factory, furniture factory, cornice works, and establish- 
ments producing stoves, vinegar, shirts, overalls, cigars, confectionery, 
mattresses, harness, clothing, artificial limbs, etc. 

The actual valuation of all real, personal and railroad property in the 
city is over $40,000,000. 

Topeka is clean, well drained ^ and a healthy city. The climate is 
salubrious, and with the natural location and splendid sewer system, 
perfect drainage is obtained. 

Topeka is well supplied with good hotels, sufficient to accommodate 
the largest gatherings and conventions. 

There are thirty-six daily and weekly newspapers in Topeka. 

There is an excellent electric street railway system covering the entire 
city and operating 32 miles of track. 

A woolen mill, completed in 1897, is now in full operation, employing 
150 men a month. 



102 KANSa-S. 



WICHITA. 



The county seat of Sedgwick county ; population 25,000. 

Twenty -three miles of electric street car lines. 

Wichita is one of the best railroad points in Kansas. She has no fewer 
than ten lines running to all points of the compass. The Missouri 
Pacific system gives her direct connection to Kansas City, thence east 
and north ; also with Denver, Colo. It has likewise a line running into 
the southwestern part of the State. 

The stock yards are now doing a fine, steady business. These yards 
were first opened in 1887. They had hardly got started when they were 
burned out on the 18th day of October. On the 1st day of November, 
1888, they were again opened. They cover sixty acres of ground — 
fourteen acres under shedding. They have a capacity for 5,000 cattle 
and 10,000 hogs. They have 125 hydrants. The capital stock, $600,000, 
is all owned in Wichita. 

Wichita has every advantage of location. She is situated on the east 
bank of the Arkansas river, near the junction of that stream with the 
Little Arkansas, in the finest valley west of the Mississippi. 

There are eighteen public schools, including a high school. 

Wichita is located in the bosom of the great Arkansas valley, better 
known as the Happy valley, fifty miles north of the Indian Territory 
line and two hundred miles west of any other city. By her fortunate 
location she holds the key to the trade of the great Southwest. 

Wichita is the wonder of America and the metropolis of the Southwest. 

She is a great receiving and distributing point. 

She is the only packing center in Kansas, the combined capacity of 
the two packing houses being 5,000 hogs and 1,000 head of cattle daily. 

She is the center of the finest hog and cattle region in the world. 

She is a large wholesale and manufacturing city. 

She has absolute control of a country 400 miles square. 

Wichita is a city of magnificent buildings, which have cost millions 
of dollars. 

She has an extensive system of water works. 

A splendid sewerage system. 

An excellent gas and electric light plant. 

The finest equipped and most efficient fire department in the West. 

Good telephone service. 



KANSAS. 103 

LEAVENWORTH. 

The oldest city in the State, population, 23,560. 

Leavenworth's strong point is coal. In 1860, coal cost sixty-five cents 
per bushel ; in 1870, the first coal shaft had been sunk, and a twenty-four 
inch vein struck. Since then, four workable veins have been discovered, 
the first, at 713 feet, twenty -two inches in thickness ; the second, at 738 
feet, twenty-four inches in thickness ; the third, at 998 feet, twenty-six 
inches in thickness ; and the fourth, at 1,030 feet, twenty-eight inches 
thick. From actual tests it is known that the coal veins cover 200 
square miles, and contain 1,940,000 tons of coal. The best coal is sold at 
$2.25 per ton, and slack, suitable for factory purposes, at $1.00 per ton 
Two million dollars are invested in coal mines, and $20,000 per week are 
paid in wages. 

There is no better corn market in the West, about 7,000 bushels per 
day being the capacity of the various mills. 

Fort Leavenworth, the Soldiers' Home, and a large part of the city are 
built with bricks made from clay found near the city ; and bricks are 
shipped to Kansas City and other markets. Clay suitable for making 
vitrified bricks for street paving has been discovered, and large works 
have been erected near the Soldiers' Home grounds, at a cost of $30,000, 
and another factory has been established in the city at a similar cost, so 
that 60,000 paving brick a day are now being made. 

This is the great stove center of the West. The Great Western Stove 
Company is the largest but two in the world ; they make 60,000 stoves 
in a year. They give employment to 200 men. The stoves are sold in 
every State in the Union. 

The largest bridge works west of the Mississippi river are at Leaven- 
worth, and give employment to a large number of men. The furniture 
factories, planing mills and cooperage works are the very best of their 
kind, as are also the packing-houses, printing establishments, cold 
storage and ice plants. 

Leavenworth can fairly be called the manufacturing center of the 
West, for it has factories of almost every kind. They nearly all com- 
menced in a small way, and have grown up to their present dimensions. 

The Great Western Manufacturing Company, makers of mill machin- 
ery of all kinds, employ 100 men, and send their products over the 
entire West and Southwest. 



KANSAS. 105 

Leavenworth county is not only a rich farming county, but it is rich 
in fruit. More apples are shipped from this county every year than 
from any other county in America. Farmers are prosperous ; having a 
good cash market for all they grow, they have an advantage over other 
counties. 

South of the city 2,500 veterans find comfortable quarters in the Sol- 
diers' Home, maintained by the Federal Government. 

The State Penitentiary and the United States Fort are located near the 
city. This most important military post has charge of issuing all neces- 
sary stores for the department of the Missouri. 

ATCHISON. 

Atchison was settled in 1854, and has a population of 26,758. 

Atchison lies in a sort of amphitheatre, its business center being in 
the valley of a creek, locally known as White Clay creek, and its resi- 
dences occupy the hills which rise on either side. 

It is within 100 miles of the geographical center of the United States, 
and is 900 feet above the level of the sea. 

The territory included in the city proper is about two and one-half 
miles north and south, by about two miles east and west. Its surface is 
irregular, rising from the low, level bottom ground of the creek, to the 
bluffs and hills nearly 200 feet high. The natural drainage is unsur- 
passed, and the high elevations furnish beautiful and healthful sites for 
residences. 

The Missouri river is here spanned by a steel railroad and highway 
bridge, by which six lines of railroads reach the city from the east. 
Seven railroads run west from Atchison, making thirteen in all. 

We can claim for Atchison, at the present time, that she has more 
miles of paved streets than any other city of equal size in the United 
States ; has one of the best electric street railway plants to be found 
operating anywhere, eight miles of track, fifteen cars, entire plant cost- 
ing $150,000 ; it has two electric light plants and one gas plant ; has a 
first-class water service ; has three colleges, Midland, St. Benedict's and 
the Atchison Business College ; has seven public schools (two of which 
are for colored residents), with a corps of 44 teachers, a high school, and 
a number of private schools; churches of every denomination, creed 
and color ; a modern Union Station, built of pressed brick, at a cost of 
$50,000. 



106 KANSAS. 

Atchison has three large elevators in operation, several of the largest 
wholesale grocers, drug, hardware, dry goods and seed houses doing 
business in the West, four flour mills, two foundries, two planing mills, 
overall and shirt factory, vitrified brick plant, ice plant, five banks, two 
newspapers, canning factory, three candy factories, a coal mine, and one 
of the finest equipped opera houses in the West, the latter erected at a 
cost of $50,000 ; an elegant government postoffice building, erected at a 
cost of $80,000 ; a new county court house, erected at a cost of $93,000 ; 
a Soldiers' Orphans' Home, erected by the State at a cost of $175,000, 
and a Public Library. 

Every line of business and profession is represented in the city by 
men with whom it is a pleasure to transact business. 

FORT SCOTT. 

The county seat of Bourbon county ; has a population of 11,946. 

Fort Scott presents considerable attraction to manufacturers. It is the 
center of a country where nature has provided plenty of raw materials 
for factories, such as limestone for building and smelting purposes, 
cement rock equal to the Louisville, clay for all kinds of heavy pottery, 
fire clay, timber of all kinds in great profusion, sandstone flagging, flax, 
sugar cane, straw for coarser class of paper, the best of brick clay, broom 
corn. An inexhaustible supply of coal underlies the entire city ; also 
natural gas wells abound in the neighborhood. The mines to the south 
yield abundantly lead and zinc. 

This city is now one of the important railroad centers to the South- 
west, being situated at the intersection of three great trunk lines, the 
Missouri Pacific, the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis, and the M., K. 
& T. Eight lines in all center here. The Missouri Pacific has recently 
completed two more, and a belt line around the city. 

It is an important jobbing center, being the source of supply for the 
mining and agricultural towns of the surrounding region. Its public 
improvements are complete, consisting of water works, sewerage, electric 
light plant, illuminating and fuel gas plant, telephone exchange, and 
every metropolitan convenience ; several costly hotels, U. S. court house, 
normal school, seven public school buildings, four strong banks, aggre- 
gating $1,000,000 capital, seven newspapers, two journals, seven miles of 
street railway, soon to be increased and operated by electric power. 
Natural gas is found in considerable quantities at a depth of from 300 to 



KANSAS. 107 

800 feet, and fael and lighting are obtained at very small cost. The town 
is built in the valley of the Marmaton River, which furnishes ample 
waterpower for all purposes. Good drainage and pure drinking water 
render it exceptionally healthy, the death rate being among the lowest 
in the United States. 

HUTCHINSON. 

Situated on the north bank of the Arkansas River, with the fertile 
Arkansas Valley finding a market for its products there, and four trunk 
lines intersecting within its limits, Hutchinson is one of the most prom- 
ising cities in Kansas. It is the county seat of Reno county, which has 
an area of 1,260 square miles of fertile land, with an abundance of timber 
and water. 

The discovery of a vein of pure rock salt, over 300 feet in thickness, 
has made this industry one of the greatest of its kind in the United 
States, and will greatly add to the population and wealth of the city. 
The output of salt at present is from sixty to eighty carloads a day, 
representing a cash value of from $3,000 to $5,000 daily, which in round 
numbers means that over $1,000,000 worth of salt is sold from Hutch- 
inson in a year. The population of the city is now a little over 10,000, 
and rapidly increasing. 

In the county there are 128 schools, twenty churches of various 
denominations, and twelve newspapers, one of which is an eight-page 
Associate Press daily. The State Reformatory is located here. 

Large hotels, solid and handsome business blocks, electric light and 
power, gas, water works and street cars, give evidence that Hutchinson 
is a thriving and prosperous city. There are three banks, doing a daily 
business of more than $1,000,000, one of which has deposits of a half a 
million, and among the banks of Kansas stands fourth in the amount of 
business done. This town offers exceptional opportunities. 

Hutchinson also figures largely in the wholesale grocery trade, and 
a branch house of the Onondaga Broom Works has been established 
here, engaged in the manufacture of whisk brooms, with a capacity 
equal to the task of supplying the entire West with whisk brooms. 

The State Reformatory has now been completed, after large additions, 
and has now about 200 inmates. 



KANSAS. 109 

The Shady Grove Creamery has skimming stations in various parts 
of Kansas, within a radius of 100 miles from Hutchinson, and, with a 
capacity of 25,000 pounds daily, ships, in car lots, to Boston and other 
Eastern points. 

As an apple and grape shipping point, the city is rapidly pushing to 
the front. Hundreds of thousands of fruit trees have been planted, 
and vineyards set out, and the fruft business is now one of the most 
important industries. 

LAWRENCE. 

Population, 9,997. Founded in 1854. 

Its numerours schools, colleges, churches and literary «ocieties, have 
given it a celebrity enjoyed by few places anywhere in the great West. 

Around these varied interests has gathered a population of refined, 
educated people whose influence and association are particularly favorable 
to the student's work. It would be difficult to find a place in which 
young men and women can pursue a course of studies under more favor- 
able circumstances, with greater chances of success or with less expense. 
First among the attractions of the City of Lawrence, is the State Univer- 
sity. Situated upon the lofty brow of Mount Oread, it overlooks the city 
at its base, the Kansas River, winding around the Delaware bluffs, the 
timber-lined Wakarusa, and a line of hills beyond. 

Another attractive feature of Lawrence is Bismarck Grove, one of the 
grandest natural parks in the country. Art has added to its beauties, 
and now there are three beautiful lakes in it, fed by water works, on 
which are kept several row boats for the use of the visitor. Bismarck 
Grove has become famous for its fine herd of buffalo and deer, and 
hundreds of people visit the park to see the last remnant of the "Monarch 
of the Plains." 

The United States Indian School, better known as the Haskell Insti- 
tute, is located just outside the city limits. There are four very large 
buildings constructed so as to form a half circle, and here are being 
educated some four hundred Indian girls and boys, from about forty 
different tribes. It is an industrial school, and all must work at some 
trade a half day and go to school the other half. The boys are uniformed 
and the six companies form the Haskell Institute Battalion, which, 
headed by their band of Indian boys, makes an imposing appearance 
Many visitors g^ Qut to the school to witness their weekly drills. 



110 KANSAS. 

The rare advantages offered to manufacturers by the almost unlimited 
water power; the numerous railroads, directly connecting it wdth all 
points of the country ; the facilities for securing either a classical or com- 
mercial education — all combine in bringing hundreds of people to the 
city. 

SALINA. 

Population, 7,000. Salina is in the very center of the wheat belt, 
with inexhaustible agricultural resources surrounding it. It has become 
a great shipping point, and its large elevators and mills do an enormous 
business. In like proportion its other business interests have developed — 
wholesale and retail houses, manufactories, packing establisliments, gas 
works, electric lights, street railways, book binderies, in fact, everything 
that goes to make a large and prosperous city. 

Salina is proud of her schools and colleges. Its five large public school 
buildings accommadate about one thousand scholars, and its advanced 
institutions of learning have already acquired more than a State reputa- 
tion. The Normal University, erected at a cost of $40,000, attracts scores 
of students every year ; the Kansas Wesleyan, controlled by the Metho- 
dist denomination, has exceeded the expectations of its founders, and 
the St. John Military Institute offers special courses that the young men 
are rapidly taking advantage of. Believing that the prosperity of a city 
depends upon the intelligence of its people, active and untiring efforts 
were made to secure these institutions. As is to be expected in a city of 
schools, Salina has many churches, and the local organizations are pro- 
gressive and prosperous. 

ARKANSAS CITY. 

Population, 8,347. With the opening of the Cherokee Strip, Arkansas 
City became at once a most important point. It is a thriving, busy 
place already, and the impetus which will be given it by the settle- 
ment of the new lands, will unquestionably increase its commercial 
importance. 

A canal five miles long, running through the city, from the Arkansas 
to the Walnut rivers, affords 15,000 - horsepower, that can easily be 
increased by enlarging this canal, which already places the city at 
the front as a manufacturing center. The factories which depend on the 



KANSAS. Ill 

canal for their power are the City Roller Mills, with a capacity of 1,000 
barrels a day ; the Plummer Chair Factory, Kirk wood Windmill Fac- 
tory, mattress factory, Canal Planing Mills and electric light works. 

The city also contains a foundry and machine shops, two wholesale 
groceries, and one wholesale dry goods store, one hotel build- 
ing which cost $125,000, another $45,000, and an opera house building 
worth $75,000. This gives an idea of the business buildings of the city 
and it must be inferred that other business buildings, which are numer- 
ous, coinpare favorably with those named. All the best buildings are 
built of cut stone, which is quarried a few miles from town. 

NEWTON. 

Population, 7,000; county seat of Harvey county. It is also a junction 
point of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway and the Missouri 
Pacific Railway. 

Among the prominent industries of the city are the roller mills, the 
cornice works, and the carriage and wagon factories, whose products are 
extensively used over the entire West. 

Newton is well supplied with papers, there being two daily, one semi- 
weekly and three weekly newspapers. 

There are three banks, two national and one State, where a large 
annual business is transacted. 

Thirteen churches are established here, of all the leading denomina- 
tions, and Bethel College, the only Mennonite college in North America, 
is located here. 

Newton is a large grain market, and is one of the largest live-stock 
markets in the State. Its creameries in the season of 1897 paid over 
$50,000 to the farmers of Harvey county. The city owns the water 
works system and has one of the finest water supplies in the State. The 
improvements made in the last year exceed $250,000. The county is free 
from debt, and all is good, tillable land. 

OSAWATOMIE. 
The population of Osawatomie is at present about three thousand 
and it is a steady, growing community. Natural gas has been devel- 
oped by the Pennsylvania Gas and Mining Company, which has an 
extensive plant in operation, and furnishes light and fuel to the entire 
city. 



112 KANSAS. 

The Kansas State Insane Asylum is located here, and is an imposing 
structure, comprising three handsome buildings, with large and beau- 
tiful grounds. About two hundred persons are employed here, includ- 
ing officers, attendants and other employes. 

Osawatomie is a historic place, as it was the home of John Brown, 
and is the place where the now famous "Battle of Osawatomie" was 
fought. A monument to the memory of John Brown has been erected 
within two blocks of the depot, and is visited by many tourists. 
Among other historic items concerning Osawatomie, the first Repub- 
lican convention in Kansas was held here. 

The Missouri Pacific Railway Company has extensive machine and 
car shops here ; yards, and superintendent's headquarters, employing 
several hundred men. 

OTTAWA. 

Population, 8,006. The railway repair shops are located here, with 
large and commodious buildings, roundhouses, etc., employing 200 men ; 
three grain elevators, three banks, three mills, four weekly newspapers, 
two daily newspapers, two extensive nurseries, an excellent creamery, 
one foundry, one planing mill, one furniture factory, one soap factory, 
one cob pipe factory, two wire fence factories, and no saloons. 
Recently there has been organized a natural gas and development 
company, which has, so far, put down five wells, three of which have 
proved to be profitable. The company will develop further, and every 
one concerned is confident that natural gas, in abundant quantities, 
is in sight, and will be obtained in a short time. The railway hospital 
has a capacity for sixty patients. '* Forest Park " is the pride of the 
city. It is splendidly improved and fitted up with buildings of various 
kinds, wherein are held the county fair and widely known Chautauqua 
Assembly. There are four graded schools, with commodious buildings, 
also a commercial college, with a full business course, and a Baptist 
university, with a full college course. Ottawa is literally a " city of 
churches," there being eighteen church buildings. The First Baptist 
Church is one of the finest in the state. "The Rohrbaugh " is con- 
sidered the largest and finest opera house in Kansas. 



114 KANSAS. 

WINFIELD. 

Winfield is the county seat of Cowley county, which is famed through- 
out the State for the fine quality of magnesium limestone found within 
its limits, and used extensively for building purposes, the postoffice at 
Topeka being built of it. Winfield was founded in 1871, and now has a 
good and solid population of 6,500. While its interests are largely 
agricultural, and it is noted as a fruit center, manufacturing and mercan- 
tile enterprises have not been neglected. There is a complete system of 
gas and water works, electric lights and street railroads. There are three 
railroads, four first-class hotels, two theatres, two colleges, four banks, 
and the same number of newspapers, three flour mills and two elevators, 
an ice plant and one large packing house, which, in addition to other 
industries, contribute to the general prosperity of the city. 

GARNETT. 

Garnett is the county seat of Anderson county, and has three rail- 
roads, two large public school buildings, eleven churches, a canning 
factory employing 150 hands during the packing season, a large furniture 
factory, good hotels, two banks and many good dry goods, grocery and 
implement stores. The population is about 2,500. There are about 150 
miles of railway in the county, and all farms are within a short distance 
of some railway station. The surrounding country is excellent farming 
land, with plenty of good building stone and a good supply of water. 

ANTHONY. 

Population, 1,806. County seat of Harper county. 

It is situated at the junction of the Missouri Pacific and the Hutchin- 
son & Southern, and at the western termination of the 'Frisco railroad, 
thus securing outlets to points north, northeast, east and southeast. The 
Hutchinson & Southern Eailroad is a feeder for the Union Pacific, and 
its southern prospective point is Galveston, Texas. The district adjacent 
to the ground on which the city is built is an open, gently undulating 
prairie, with a fertile soil, suitable for the cultivation of all cereals, but 
producing chiefly at present good crops of wheat, oats and corn. The 
succulent grasses, along with the plentiful supply of water, render this one 
of the finest cattle raising districts in the State. 

The salt industry, one of the natural resources of Anthony, is treated 
elsewhere in this volume. 



KANSAS. 115 

INDEPENDENCE 

Is the county seat of Montgomery County, Kansas, in the Southeastern 
part of the State, and is located on the Verdigris River. All industries 
common to a thriving Western city are to be found here. The popula- 
tion, with a rapid but steady increase, is now 4,000. The United States 
land office is located here. Independence is an important railroad 
point, and has great advantages, recommending it to both home-seekers 
and investors. A county high school is now building, designed to cost 
$25,000. Coal is extensively mined in this vicinity ; an excellent lime- 
stone is plentiful, and good building stone is found in large quantities 
in the river bluffs. A brick plant and creamery are located here, and 
natural gas affords fuel and light. 

There are two weekly newspapers and one daily, fourteen churches, 
three banks and seven hotels. The surrounding country is an undula- 
ting prairie, and about 25 per cent of it is bottom land. Timber is 
abundant. 

Mcpherson. 

McPherson, the county seat of McPherson County, has a steadily 
increasing population of about 3,100. The city has electric lights, 
waterworks, churches, and fine school buildings. The Dunkard College 
here has recently been enlarged. There are four railroads intersecting 
at this point. An ice plant has been erected in the last year, and two 
large flour mills. McPherson County is one of the banner wheat-pro- 
ducing counties of the State ; the value of the farming lands in the 
county is over $12,000,000. Throughout the entire county are found 
evidences of the flourishing condition of the country. 

As it is situated near the center of the State, surrounded by fine 
farming lands, McPherson is destined to be one of the most prosperous 
towns in Kansas. 

COFFEYVILLE. 

To the title of a clean residence place, a veritable housekeeper's 
paradise, Coffey ville has strong claims. There is no soot, no coal; 
natural gas is the natural fuel of the town. There are sixteen gas wells 



KANSAS. 117 

in operation, furnishing light and fuel to about 1,000 residences, stores, 
churches, factories, supplying light and power to all industries that 
require fuel. To all such, in which the item of fuel is important, the 
City of Coffey ville offers remarkable inducements. The railroad con- 
nections and shipping facilities are the most complete of any town in 
Southern Kansas, and it is the second largest grain distributing point 
in the State, being surpassed in this only by Kansas City. Among the 
leading industries of Coffeyville may be mentioned a vitrified brick 
factory, manufacturing brick from bluff shale and burning same with 
natural gas; large flouring mills and mammoth elevators, sash and 
door factories and planing mills, ice plants and cold storage ware- 
houses, railroad repair shops (four division termini of the Missouri 
Pacific are located here), and all lines of business are well represented. 
Coffeyville also has a recently erected pottery plant, a paper mill, and 
an egg-case filler factory. There are four large three-story brick school 
houses, and eleven churches of various denominations. An electric 
light and power plant is also to be erected here shortly. The popula- 
tion of Coffeyville is rapidly and steadily increasing, being now over 
5,500. This city will repay investigation. 

PITTSBUEG. 

Pittsburg has made remarkable gains in the last few years, the 
percentage of gain in population (which is now 13,000) exceeding that 
of any other city in the State, and raising its rank among the cities of 
the State from ninth to sixth in the last year. To this large number is 
practically added the population of the adjacent mining camps, making 
in all nearly 20,000. 

Pittsburg is situated in the center of the great Kansas coal fields, and 
the annual tonnage of Pittsburg coal product exceeds that of the com- 
bined wheat and corn crop of Kansas. 

There are five large zinc smelting works, railroad machine shops, the 
largest vitrified brickworks in the State, wood-working manufacturing 
mills, and further, excellent opportunities for the exercise of business 
ability in all lines. 

There is also a packing house, ten big wholesale houses, a foundry 
and machine shop of considerable extent, which is now being doubled 



KANSAS. 



119 



in capacity, flour mill, and a paid fire department. The hotel accom- 
modations are as fine as any in the State. 

Five railroad systems pass through Pittsburg, and fifteen passeng-er 
trains arrive daily. The city has all first-class improvements, such as 
paved streets, gas and electric light, waterworks, and electric street 
car lines extending to the neighboring mining camps. 

The public school system is unexcelled, churches of all denomina- 
tions are to be found, and the social and other features of the city are 
all that can be desired. 




KANSAS CATTLE. 

The cheapest and best fuel ever known is found here in unlimited 
quantities. Pine and manufacturing timber is easily obtainable a short 
distance from here, and is readily accessible by railroad. 

The untold millions of natural resources surrounding the city makes 
its growth rapid, substantial and inevitable. 

NEODESHA. 

The "Oil City of the West" is the name now most frequently applied 
to Neodesha. This city is situated in the Southeastern part of the State, 
in the valley between the Verdigris and Fall Rivers, and surrounded by 



120 KANSAS. 

a most fertile and resourceful country. Few cities have a more promis- 
ing outlook. There are fifty-five producing oil wells and three gas wells, 
which supply the town with fuel and light. The oil industries are being 
rapidly developed. A large refinery has just been erected by the Stand- 
ard Oil Company. The products are two grades of illuminating oil, 
gasoline, naphtha, benzine, gas oil and fuel oil, this last being much 
used in the smelters of Kansas and Nebraska. The refineries at Neo 
desha are connected by pipe line with the large storage tanks at Thayer, 
fifteen miles distant. 

The production of oil exceeds the capacity of the refineries. Large 
supply stores for oil well machinery are located here and doing a rush- 
ing business. Agriculture and stock-raising are the principal industries 
of the county, and of that section of the State, and Neodesha is the 
natural marketing place for the agricultural products of the section 
tributary to Neodesha ; 75 per cent of the wheat was marketed there, 
and 80 per cent of the corn crop was sold to local stock feeders. 

There are now twelve living gas wells, and about one hundred 
producing oil wells in the territory immediately adjacent to the town. 
The municipal gas and water works are the property of the city. 
There are five churches, with good buildings, good schools, and the 
population is in the neighborhood of 2,500. 

The large brick school building, with a competent force of teachers, 
provides ample educational facilities. Neodeshathas two daily papers 
and two banks. 

lOLA. 

Allen county is in the southeastern part of the State, and is a pros- 
perous and well-settled section. The general surface of the country is 
rolling ; the Neosho river and its numerous tributaries provide an abun- 
dance of water, and the land is well timbered. 

The county seat is lola, a city of magnificent resources in the way of 
natural gas, of which there is a practically unlimited supply. In 1893, 
a large well was uncovered, having a capacity of more than 3,000,000 
cubic feet a day. The discovery of the first great well made it certain 
that other investors would enter the field, and at the present time the 
daily output ranges from 3,000,000 to 12,000,000 cubic<^feet each. The 
town is lighted by natural gas. 



KANSAS. 121 

An important feature of thia gas is its freedom from sulphur and 
phosphorus, which renders it particularly well adapted to use in the 
working of iron and steel. 

As a direct result of the discovery of natural gas, Tola is rapidly 
becoming a manufacturing city. Already two immense zinc smelting 
plants are in operation, and three more are under construction. A 
large building and vitrified brick plant, and an extensive iron foundry 
and manufacturing plant are already located here, and a large number 
of other industries are assured. The investments, by careful and 
conservative business men, of hundreds of thousands of dollars in 
these manufacturing plants is the best evidence that could be given of 
the extent, permanence, and value of the lola gas fields. 

During the last two years, lola has increased from 1,700 to over 5,000 in 
population, and there is every indication that the same ratio of increase 
will continue for many years to come. Capital seeking investment in 
manufacturing industries will meet with a cordial welcome, and with 
very substantial inducements in the way of sites and fuel. 

To the manufacturer in lines where fuel is an important item, lola 
offers unparalleled advantages. Gas is a superior fuel, and is to be had 
here at an almost nominal figure. 

WACONDA SPEING. 

Among the prominent mineral springs of the West, the celebrated 
Waconda, or ''Spring of the Great Spirit," takes high rank. Situated 
in a beautiful valley of the Solomon River, on the Central Branch of 
the Missouri Pacific Railway, is this, one of the most remarkable 
mineral springs in the world. 

For long ages before the white man disputed with the red the 
possession of the West, was this spring known among all the tribes as a 
manifest action of the Great Spirit's beneficence, a mark of divine 
favor to the race. From far places the Indians came to this spring to 
obtain relief from their ills, and to propitiate the supernatural powers 
by offerings and ceremonies. 

The character of the spring did not change, its health-giving 
properties did not depart, upon the advent of the Caucasian. The 
water was, and still is, a marvelous tonic to the entire system. It 
upbuilds mentally no less than physically, and the results obtained by 




I 



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KANSAS. 123 

its use, in all forms of nervous affections especially, are truly 
remarkable. 

Time was when the Indian made weary and arduous journeys to this 
haven for the ailing, but now the journey thither is one of pleasure, a 
recollection to be treasured through succeeding years. 

To reach the Waconda Spring, you simply take the Missouri Pacific 
Railway, and it takes you to the front door of the commodious and 
substantial hotel at Waconda. It is no trouble at all to get there. 

CHETOPA. 

The City of Chetopa is situated in Labette County, on the banks of 
the Neosho River, with a population, which has gained rapidly during 
the last year, of about 4,000. The business buildings are of brick, and 
one, the " Bush Building," just completed, is of white limestone, from 
Carthage, Mo., and adds greatly to the attractiveness of the city. 
The streets are well made, lighted with electric light, and have vitrified 
brick sidewalks. Chetopa being situated in the "Gas Belt" does not 
want for manufactCiring industries, the wells being but one mile from 
the city. On the 24th of October the gas was brought to the city by 
pipeline, and before the close of the present year, 1898, all residences, 
stores and so forth will be enhanced in attractiveness by the use of this 
cheap, and at the same time thorough, illuminant and fuel. A water 
works system has just been completed; and pipes have been laid for 
the city water service. A complete telephone system has been placed in 
operation. Her public school system is the pride of Chetopa, scholars 
from the Chetopa high school passing direct to the State University. A 
$12,000 opera house affords opportunity for theatrical entertainments, 
and good companies frequently appear in the standard dramas. As to 
hunting and fiLshing, Chetopa is in the middle of an unusually rich field, 
black bass, crappie, jack salmon, snipe, plover, prairie chicken, quail, 
jack rabbits, and so forth, being found within short distance of the 
town. Parties seeking healthful and pleasant location for business 
enterprises should give Chetopa close inspection. 

KIOWA, 
Among the good towns of Kansas may be mentioned Kiowa, a pros- 
perous city of 1,000 population, in the southern part of the State. The 
stores of Kiowa do an immense wholesale and retail trade with the 
surrounding country, the leading towns of Oklahoma, and the Indian 



124 KANSAS. 

Territory doing business there. Among the numerous other industries 
of Kiowa, the large flour mill takes a high position. The city is the 
headquarters for the cattlemen of Southern Kansas and of Oklahoma, 
who graze an enormous number of cattle in the vicinity of Kiowa every 
year. The public schools are up to the high standard of all the schools 
of Kansas, and in public buildings, churches, and so forth, Kiowa is 
surpassed by no city of its size in the State. 

CHEROKEE 
Is a prosperous town of about 1,500 population, situated in the southern 
part of Crawford County, in a rich agricultural and mining region, 
whose railroads furnish excellent shipping facilities for the large out- 
put of stock, grain and coal. Four blocks of smelters near the city 
employ a large number of men, and the coal mines, which are on all 
sides of the town, afford employment for a still larger number of men. 
Oil has been found within a short distance of the town, and will, in all 
probability, be developed in the near future, and add to the city's 
already prosperous condition. The city owns a good system of water 
works. The public schools are excellent, and the buildings commo- 
dious and comfortable. There are four churches, and all the leading 
lodges are well represented — Masons, Odd Fellows, and others. The 
city has large business houses, and a flour mill of great capacity. 

HIAWATHA 
Is called the prettiest miniature city in Kansas. And the reason? It 
has everything that the larger cities have, the municipality owning an 
electric light plant for street lighting, and a private company supplying 
incandescent or arc lights for residences or stores. The telephone 
service is complete, and unsurpassed, as connection may be had with 
every town in three States, and with every town in Brown County, of 
which Hiawatha is the county seat. But the pride of Hiawatha is her 
Academy and her Public Library. Educationally, and in a social way, 
the jewel city of Brown County ranks with the highest. The popula- 
tion is 5,000, and all are well-to-do. 

The manufacturing interests of Hiawatha are not large, the city 
depending upon the support of the rich and progressive farmers of the 
surrounding country, and the support is never-failing. Crop failures 
are entirely unknown. Farms to rent are scarce, and fewer are for 
sale. Land is worth from |40 to $500 an acre, and is very fertile. 



KANSAS. 125 

Hiawatha is a great distributing point, and this affords employment 
for a large number of people. 

QUENEMO. 

Among the smaller of the prosperous cities of Kansas may be ranked 
Quenemo, an active and progressive point on the banks of the Marais 
de Cygnes River, forty miles south of the State Capitol. 

The soil of the surrounding country is most fertile ; productive coal 
mines lie almost within the city limits ; a large flour mill, with the 
latest machinery, two elevators, and two broom factories are located 
here. The population is now about 1,000, and is steadily increasing, 
with trade in all lines good, and steadily growing better. Four lines 
of railway center here, and the city bids fair to become one of the 
"good towns " of eastern Kansas. 

GREAT BEND. 

Great Bend is the gate- way city of the famed Arkansas Valley, and 
is located on the great Northern Bend of the Arkansas River, at an 
altitude of 1,700 feet, which places the city beyond all malarial 
influences, and secures it from the climatic fevers of the farther west 
mountainous country. The healthfulness of the climate is surpassed 
by that of no other locality. Pure air, pure water, and a mild climate 
conspire to render life pleasant and enjoyable. 

Great Bend has twelve Christian denominations, and eight churches. 
There are four public school buildings, and a Central Normal College, 
which draws a large number of students from the rest of the State. 

Among the industries of Great Bend may be mentioned: Three 
solid banks, two large flouring mills, four elevators, one foundry, two 
opera houses, four hotels, bottling works, butter and cheese factories, 
and the other general businesses common to prosperous Western towns. 

The city has an excellent system of waterworks, one daily, and four 
weekly newspapers, and a complete electric lighting system. There 
are also three railroads. 

Barton County is one of the great dairy counties of the State, paying 
out about 1120,000 per annum for milk. 

The diversified farming, stock, and dairy interests of the county, the 
fruit raising, the easy and cheap irrigation, (when needed,) makes 
this section of Kansas much sought after. 



126 KANSAS. 



IRRIGATION. 

A great deal has been said and written lately about the possibilities 
of irrigation in Western Kansas. After carefully examining a number 
of articles on this subject in Federal and State reports the following from 
the pen of Eobert Hay, chief geologist of the United States artesian and 
underflow investigation, has been selected as furnishing the best infor- 
mation available for a work of this character: 

" Finney, Gray, Ford and Hamilton counties are usually referred to as 
containing the irrigation region of Kansas. This is correct ; and Garden 
City may be considered the irrigation center. And yet, there was irri- 
gation in Kansas before the three more western of these counties were 
organized, nearly a decade before Garden City was born. In 1873 George 
Allman settled on the south bank of the Smoky Hill, a mile or two above 
Fort Wallace. One of the first improvements he made was to construct 
a ditch about a mile long, and, by the aid of a small dam, tap the first 
permanent water of that river. In proving up his claim, the dam, ditch 
and laterals were among the improvements he described. He grew cab- 
bages, potatoes, onions, and other garden stuff, which he sold at the fort, 
and wheat, alfalfa, and fruit have also received and repaid his attention. 
Mr. Allman has always done well on his farm, but last year a neighbor 
across the river made a larger dam higher up and took his water. As 
Kansas law on the subject is meager, and there is no local official to 
enforce it, Mr. Allman was in great diflficulty when I saw him in June. 
What the outcome was I have not heard. Professors from more than 
one of our State institutions have camped on the Smoky river in this 
neighborhood during their summer explorations, but none have thought 
this ditch, now eighteen years old, worthy of any report. A change has 
taken place. Not only Western Kansas, but the middle and eastern sec- 
tions of the State, are talking about irrigation now. Not only is the 
Arkansas valley being irrigated in the counties mentioned above, but 
streams like the Republican, Sappa, the Prairie Dog, and the Cimarron 
are being utilized for this purpose. A small stream like Brush creek, in 
Graham county, has been dammed so as to irrigate twenty-five acres 



128 KANSAS. 

directly, by Mr. Nathan Krank, and about as much more is benefited by 
sub-irrigation from the pool above the dam. A small stream known as 
Spring creek, in Meade county, has been used to water four hundred 
acres on the Crooked L ranch, and in the same county, and in Hamilton, 
some irrigation has been done by artesian wells, on an aggregate of about 
one hundred acres. 

" This meeting of the State Board of Agriculture devoting this time to 
the subject of irrigation is another proof of the changed tendency of pub- 
lic opinion on this subject, and the fact that the National Congress 
intrusted an investigation of this matter to the Secretary of Agriculture 
last spring, which is being continued [through this winter, shows the 
extent to which national interest in the development of the region of the 
Great Plains has extended. (The report of the summer work is now 
printed as a Senate document of the Fifty-first Congress, No. 222.) 

" We wish to contribute a little now to the store of facts, a knowledge of 
which will help to solve the question of the possibility of saving Western 
Kansas to settlement by the use of irrigation. By Western Kansas we 
mean particularly all that part lying between the 99th and 102d merid- 
ians ; that is, about 32,000 square miles. But, though this region is desig- 
nated, yet much of what will be said is true of the region adjoining for 
sixty or eighty miles further east, and of neighboring parts of Nebraska, 
Colorado and No Man's Land. 

"If the question be asked, is irrigation possible in Western Kansas? the 
answer, that the large ditches of the Garden City district and the smaller 
ones above mentioned exist, is an affirmative answer, but it is not a suf- 
ficient one. The area in question is over twenty million acres ; the area 
irrigated by all existing means is not more than a tenth of one million. 
The real question is, can irrigation agencies be extended fifty fold or even 
twenty fold ? If yes, then Western Kansas as a whole may become an 
agricultural region. If no, then the bulk of it must be relegated to pas- 
toral occupations. Perhaps when we are through, agriculturists and the 
holders of Western mortgages may take a hopeful view. 

" All the region indicated forms part of the great plains. There are no 
mountains, and the hills of erosion are comparatively few. But there are 
numerous valleys — valleys of erosion — cut out of the body of the plains. 
We have, then, two diverse topographic features which characterize the 
region, viz. : the valleys and the flat or rolling table lands which separate 
the valleys. At the eastern part of the region the valleys have their 



KANSAS. 



129 



greatest size. They are broad and deep, while the plateaus are elongated 
easterly, with decreasing width. To the west the valleys are less deep 
and have less running water, while the divides merge into widely 
extended plains. 

"With one exception, all the rivers that make and flow through these 
valleys have their origin in the plains. They are not mountain streams. 




The one exception is the Arkansas. Its head waters are mountain tor- 
rents, which gather their waters from melting snows of the Rocky Moun- 
tains. There is always water in the Arkansas in spring and early sum- 
mer. We shall not discuss here whether the amount in the visible 
stream is enough for the irrigation of all the acres already under ditch 



130 KANSAS. 

and the ditches yet to be constructed. This year the Sangre de Christo 
range, and the high mountains around the Royal Gorge, and those 
about the torrents that form the Fountain, are white with snow, and 
there is reason to expect this coming season all the ditches dependent on 
the Arkansas and its mountain-fed affluents will be filled for the fertili- 
zation of the land. We shall leave the Arkansas valley out of this dis- 
cussion, except that we may incidentally refer to it in connection with 
the question of subterranean waters. 

" The other rivers, then, are all rivers of the plains. They have their 
source and course there. 

" We narrow down our inquiry, therefore, and state it thus : Is there 
water within reach, available for the irrigation of the valleys of these 
rivers of the plains, and the high prairie, the plateaus between them ? 

" First, with regard to the valleys. Let us name them, using for them 
the names of the rivers which run through them. The Arickaree, or 
Middle Fork of the Republican, the South Fork of the Republican, the 
two Beavers, the Sappa, the Prairie Dog, the two Solomons, the Saline, 
the Smoky Hill, the Walnut, the Whitewoman, the Cimarron, and the 
Medicine. The visible water in these streams is not enough to irrigate 
any large part of the first and second bottom lands of the valleys of more 
than three of them, viz. : the South Fork of the Republican, the Smoky 
and the Cimarron. It is only the first and last of these three which have 
visible water available at the State line. The Smoky has no visible 
water till more than a dozen miles within the State. One or two of its 
affluents show water a little further Avest. The Saline has no water fur- 
ther west than the east line <^f Thomas county. The Solomons about the 
same longitude. The Sappa and the Prairie Dog have only water in two 
counties. The Whitewoman rarely shows any water at all. The Walnut 
and Sawlog not much west of the lOOtli meridian, and the Medicine very 
little west of the 99th, 

" In many places these valleys are narrow and with steep banks, and 
the visible w^ater could only with difficulty be led out to irrigate bottom 
lands. Still, many areas of from fifty to five hundred acres on these 
streams can be irrigated with the visible water, and more can be used 
for the irrigation of smaller areas from five to fifteen acres each. In 
places where it would be expensive to lead out the water to the land, it 
can be made to serve considerable areas by making an inexpensive dam 
that will back the water up for from half a mile to two miles, and so, by 




METHOD OF IRRIGATING GRAIN FIELD IN KANSAS. 



132 KANSAS. 

percolation, sub-irrigate the bottom land adjacent. A series of three such 
dams on the Prairie Dog, in Decatur county, in this way is making sure 
crops on about 100 acres of that valley. A similar dam above Oberlin, in 
the same county, is utilizing in the same way the waters of the Sappa. 
The dam at Norton Mill, Norton county, has also made fruitful a large 
field in the same way, and a similar case is seen on the North Solomon, 
near Edmund. This method is available not only on these streams, but 
in the valleys of small creeks, and in short ravines supplied by springs. 
- " The largest of these streams would undoubtedly irrigate thousands of 
acres by ordinary ditches, if proper conservation of waters by local 
reservoirs were properly attended to. 

"These river-beds, above the points we have named as having first 
water, are almost altogether beds of sand or gravel which swallow up at 
once all the rainfall and only show wetness after the heaviest storms. 
Digging in the sand and gravel shows water at small depths in the dryest 
seasons. This water can be led out in ditches or pumped up and so lised 
for irrigation. For these valleys this water may be called the underflow. 
It probably also exists under the river bottoms lower down the streams, 
and may there also be utilized for irrigation as well as the surface-flow. 
How much of this underflow there is in these valleys is at present 
unknown. It depends on the width of the valley, the quantity (depth) 
of the sand or gravel that contains it, or in other words, the depth to 
bed-rock, the chalk or the shale which bounds it. There is certainly a 
quantity which in every valley would irrigate hundreds of acres in each 
county in which these valleys are. In the valley of the Arkansas the 
underflow has been tested and utilized at Dodge City and at Hartland. 
With the slope of that valley it appears to yield fifteen T;ubic feet of water 
per second in a sub-flow ditch a mile long reaching to six feet below the 
water-level. It also appears to draw the water from five hundred feet on 
each side the ditch. In the valley of the Platte in Nebraska similar 
results are obtained with the underflow. In the valley of the Fountain 
river, eighteen miles above Pueblo, a good stream is brought to the sur- 
face in less distance because of the greater slope of the valley. Without 
a long, costly underground ditch it is doubtful whether the underflow can 
be tapped, even in the larger valleys of Kansas, in sufficient volume to 
flow into extended ditches that would reach the high prairie outside the 
valleys. On the other hand, there is no doubt that, even in the smaller 
valleys, much water may be obtained and used to irrigate a large propor- 



KANSAS. 133 

tion of the valley slopes. Some of the long ditches supplied from the 
surface-waters of the mountain-fed Arkansas lead waters out of the valley 
to irrigate the upland plateau. It is doubtful whether the surface-waters 
or these with the waters of the underflow of any other river in Kansas 
can be led out to the neighboring plateaus. 

" The question then recurs, How can the plains proper — the plateaus 
between the rivers — be irrigated ? 

" Many thousands of settlers have taken land on these prairies. Many 
hundreds of wells have been dug, or bored, for water. It has been 
observed that the wells on a particular divide or plateau have about the 
same depth. Thus, the wells between the Sappa and the Prairie Dog, on 
the high prairie, reach water at about a depth of eighty feet. On the 
divide between the two Cimarrons, in the southwest, the depth is also 
about eighty feet for wells, over an extent of sixty miles. On the plain 
of Western Meade county, wells are from 150 to 165 feet deep. This 
uniform depth over a given area justifies the use of the term sheet-water. 
That is, water is found in a layer or sheet of porous material, sand, 
gravel, or conglomerate. The similarity of depth on the same plateau 
shows the same water-bearing stratum, but there are irregularities in 
depth and in the quantity of water, that show that the stratum is not 
absolutely uniform, and though, in nine cases out of ten, water will be 
found as expected, yet the tenth well sometimes is a failure. The causes 
of these phenomena, after a study of them for more than seven years, 
have become sufficiently plain to the writer. They cannot here be fully 
expounded. They have been referred to in other articles published by 
the State Board in several reports. 

" We note one important fact. Notwithstanding the occasional failure 
of a well, the existence of a large body of water under each plateau is 
andoubted. Of the vast number of wells on the prairies, there are very 
few that under the heaviest strain show signs of exhaustion. Some rail- 
way wells are unexhausted by horse or steam pumps. Is, then, this 
water sufiicient to be used for irrigation ? We believe it is. Let it be 
understood that a man and his family can not farm 160 acres under irri- 
gation. And also let it be understood, that if he can irrigate five acres 
he can live, and if he can irrigate twenty acres he can grow rich. If, 
then, water to irrigate five acres and upwards on every quarter-sectiov 
can be obtained on the quarter-section, the farmer can live through the 
driest years, and in wet years the rest of his farm will produce, as we 




IRRIGATION LAKE, GREAT BEND. KAN. 




HEAD GATES OF GRAND LAKE RESERVOIR CANAL 



KANSAS. 135 

know, abundantly. Powerful windmills attached to these high-prairie 
wells, would fill reservoirs that could be scraped out on the highest part 
of the farm, which would enable a few acres of alfalfa, sorghum, orchard, 
or cabbages to be watered at the critical time in June? or July, and so save 
the livelihood of the family. 

" The source of this water— the sheet- water under the plains, and the 
surface and sub-flow of the valleys, excluding the Arkansas— is the same. 
"The formation holding the water of the well, is one which, while 
having certain variations, is remarkably uniform over wide areas. 
Specimens, that seem as if they were parts of the same lump, come from 
localities as widely separated as the Republican valley in Nebraska, the 
Panhandle of Texas, and Canon City, Colorado. The formation is a 
limy grit, with many pebbles. When the pebbles predominate it is a con- 
glomeration ; when lime and sand are plentiful it resembles chunks* of 
mortar from an old wall, and we call it the " mortar-beds." When lime 
is the prevalent material, with little or no grit, it is in Kansas known 
as native lime ; in New Mexico and Texas it has the Spanish name 
of Tierra blanca, or white earth. This last form is comparatively 
rare, though locally abundant, and the gritty forms are well known in 
the plains region. We may call it the plains grit, or, referring to its 
geological age, the tertiary grit. Seen a few times it is always easily 
recognized. It crops on the Cimarron, in Morton county, on the Arkan- 
sas, at Dodge City, on the Prairie Dog, Sappa, and Solomon, in Norton, 
Decatur and Graham counties, on the Whitewoman, in Greeley county, 
and in numerous other localities. On the high prairies it is buried under 
from twenty-five to one hundred and fifty feet of the plains marl (the 
smooth, uniform, fawn-colored subsoil of the plains), but on the edges of 
the valleys it often indicates its presence where its outcrop is not con- 
spicuous. The gravels of the valleys and slopes are the weathered 
remains— the debris of the grit. It varies from forty to one hundred 
and fifty feet in thickness. Where it is well covered there is water all 
through it. Near the outcrop the water is near the bottom. Nearly all 
the springs of the regions come out of it or from under it off the lime- 
stones or shales which form the bed-rock just below it. Where the river 
valleys have cut through it they begin to have permanent water. There 
is no river of the plains which has constant running water till it has cut 
through the grit. Above that level the beds are the dry arroyos before 
described. 



136 



K AN S A S . 



"This plains grit, then, is the immediate source of the waters of the 
region, the sheet-waters of the high prairie, the visible streams, springs 
and sub-flow of the valleys. 

"We believe it is sufficiently abundant to irrigate from five to twenty 
acres on every quarter-section, and that is enough to make Western 
Kansas constantly prosperous. 

"All subterranean waters have their origin in the atmosphere. The 
rains and snows of the plains region, which are not evaporated, find 
their way, by slow percolation, to the grit below, and are stored in its 
porous beds. It is for man to have the grit to raise them and use them 
on the land. Some beds of grit reach to the foothills of the Rocky 
Mountains ; but it is not thence that the waters of the plains descend. 
The rainfall of western Kansas is forty to fifty per cent greater than that 
of the foothills region, and it is this rainfall that supplies the subter- 
ranean reservoirs of the West. Properly used, this subterranean supply 
will make the sub-arid region become the home of a numerous and 
prosperous people. So be it." 

For the benefit of those who contemplate irrigation, the following 
tables are given. They are based on the standard units of measure 
commonly used in this country, the cubic foot of 1,728 inches, the United 
States standard gallon of 231 cubic inches, the California miner's inch 
of 34.6 cubic inches per second or 1.2 cubic feet per minute; the Colo- 
rado miner's inch of 45 cubic inches per second, or 1.56 cubic feet per 
minute; the acre inch of- 3,630 cubic feet, the acre foot of 43,560 cubic 
feet, the square mile foot of 640 acre feet, and the ton of 2,000 pounds. 
The weight of a cubic foot of water is taken as being 6} pounds. Tables 
are taken from the Irrigation Annual for 1897. 




KANSAS. 



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138 



KANSAS 



PROSPERITY IN KANSAS. 

We doubt if there is another State in the Union where there is less 
want, where legitimate industry is more amply rewarded, or where men 
are making more money. We know there is none where the value of 
lands is advancing more rapidly, and as they have not yet reached even 
an approximation of their actual value, it may be safely said they will 
continue to advance for several years more, and that the population is 
keeping pace with the increase of land values, the following table of 
population by counties will testify. These figures are taken from the 
official compilation by the Superintendent of Census, and show the 
population of each county according to the census of 1880 and 1890, with 
the increase in number during the decade. Of the 106 counties, only six 
show a decrease. 

SUMMARY BY COUNTIES. 



COUNTIES. 


Population. 


Inge. 


COUNTIES. 


Population. 


Incr. 




1890. 1880. 


No. 1 


1890. 1 1880. 


No. 



Allen 

Anderson 

Atchison 

Barber 

Barton 

Bourbon 

Brown 

Butler 

Chase 

Chautauqua- 
Cherokee 

Chevenne 

Clark 

Clay 

Cloud 

Coffey 

Comanche 

Cowley 

Crawford 

Decatur 

Dickinson 

Doniphan 

Douglas 

Edwards 

Elk 

Ellis 

Ellsworth 

Finney 

Ford 

Franklin 

Geary 

Gove 

Graham 

Grant 

Gray 

Greeley 

Greenwood... 

Hamilton 

Harper 

Harvev 

Haskell 

Hodgeman . . 

Jackson 

Jefferson 

Jewell 

Johnson 

Kearney 

Kingman 

Kiowa 

Labette 

Lane 

Leavenworth. 
Lincoln 



13,509 


11,303 


2,206 


14,203 


9,057 


5.146 


26,758 


26,668 


90 


7,978 


2,661 


5,312 


13,172 


10,318 


2,854 


28,575 


19,591 


8,984 


20,319 


12,817 


7,502 


24.055 


18.586 


5,469 


8,233 


6,081 


2,152 


12,297 


11,072 


1.225 


27,770 


21,905 


5,865 


4,401 


37 


4,364 


2,357 


163 


2,194 


16.146 


12,320 


3,826 


19,295 


15,343 


3,952 


15,856 


11,438 


4,418 


2,549 


372 


2,177 


34,478 


21,538 


12,940 


30,286 


16,851 


13,435 


8,414 


4,180 


4,234 


22,273 


15,251 


7,022 


13,535 


14,257 


* 722 


23,961 


21,700 


2,261 


3,600 


2,409 


1,191 


12,216 


10,623 


1,593 


7,942 


6,179 


1,763 


9,272 


8,494 


778 


4,231 
5,308 




4,231 
2.186 


3,122 


20,279 


16,797 


3.482 


10,423 


6,994 


3.429 


2,994 


1,196 


1.998 


5,029 


4,258 


771 


1,308 


9 


1,299 


2 415 




2 415 


1,'264 


3 


i;26i 


16,309 


10,584 


5,725 


2,027 


16^ 


1.8.59 


13,266 


4,133 


9.133 


17,601 


11,451 


6,150 


1,077 
2,395 




1.077 
691 


1,704 


14,626 


10,718 


3,908 


16,620 


15,563 


1.057 


19.349 


17,475 


1.874 


17,385 


16,853 


532 


1,571 


159 


1,412 


11,823 


3,713 


8,110 


2,873 
27,586 




2,873 
4,851 


22,735 


2,060 


601 


1.459 


38,485 


32,355 


6,130 


9,709 


8,582 


1.127 



Linn 

Logan 

Lyon 

jMcPherson 

Marion 

Marshall 

'Meade 

IMiami 

iMitchell 

[Montgomery .. 

Morris 

Morton 

Nemaha 

Neosho 

Ness 

Norton 

Osage 

I Osborne •• 

Ottawa 

Pawnee 

Phillips 

Pottawatomie. 

Pratt 

Rawlins 

Reno 

Republic 

Rice 

Riley 

Rooks 

Rush 

Russell 

Saline 

Scott 

Sedgwick 

Seward 

Shawnee 

Sheridan 

Sherman 

Smith 

Stafford 

Stanton 

Stevens 

Sumner 

Thomas 

Trego 

Wabaunsee •■•. 

Wallace 

Washington.... 

Wichita 

Wilson 

Woodson 

Wyandotte 

*Decrease. 



The State. 



1 17.215 


15,298 


3,384 




23,196 


17,326 


21,614 


17.143 


20,539 


12.453 


23,912 


16.136 


2,542 


296 


19,614 


17,802 


15,037 


14.911 


23,104 


18.213 


11,381 


9,265 


724 


9 


19,249 


12,462 


18,561 


15,121 


4,944 


3,722 


10,617 


6,998 


25,062 


19,612 


12,083 


12,517 


12,581 


10.307 


5,204 


0,396 


13,661 


12.014 


17,722 


16,350 


8,118 


1,890 


6.756 


1,623 


27,079 


12,826 


19.002 


14,913 


14.451 


9,292 


13,183 


10,430 


8,018 


8,112 


5,204 


5,490 


7,333 


7,351 


17.442 


13.808 


1,262 


43 


43,626 


18,753 


1,503 


5 


49,172 


29,093 


3,733 


1.567 


5,261 


13 


15.613 


13.883 


8.520 


4.755 


1.031 


5 


1.418 


12 


30,271 


20.812 


5.538 


161 


2.535 


2.535 


11.720 


8.756 


2.468 


686 


22.894 


14.910 


1,827 


14 


15,286 


13.775 


9,021 


6,535 


54.407 


19.143 


1,427,096 


994.919 



1.917 
3.384 
5.870 
4,471 
8,086 
7,776 
2.246 
1.812 
126 
4.891 
2.116 
715 
6.787 
3,440 
1,222 
3.619 
5.450 

•= 434 
2.274 

•= 192 
1.647 
1,372 
6,228 
5.133 

14,253 
4,089 
5,159 
2,753 

^ 94 

^ 286 

^ 18 
3,634 
1,219 

24,873 
1,498 

20,079 
2,166 
5,248 
1,730 
3,765 
1,026 
1,406 
9,459 
5,377 

"2.964 
1,782 

,7,984 
1,813 
1,511 
2.486 

35,264 



432.177 



KANSAS. 



139 



CROP REPORTS. 

The following table shows the yield of bushels of the various grains 
harvested in the year 1897 by counties. The figures contained therein 
are taken from the official report of the Secretary of the State Board of 
Agriculture of the State of Kansas : 



COUNTIES. 



Corn. 



Bushels. 



Bushels. 



Oats. 



Bushels. 



Rye. 



Barley. 



Bushels. 



Bushels. 



Allen 

Anderson .... 

Atchison 

Barber 

Barton 

Bourbon 

Brown 

Butler 

Chase 

Chautauqua. 

Cherokee 

Chevenne ..•• 

Clark 

Clay 

Cloud 

Coffey 

Comanche •• 

Cowley 

Crawford 

Decatur 

Dickinson... 
Doniphan.... 

Douglas 

Edwards 

Elk 

Ellis 

Ellsworth .... 

Finney 

Ford 

Franklin 

Geary 

Gove 

Graham 

Grant 

Gray 

Greeley 

Greenwood . 
Hamilton .... 

Harper 

Harvey 

Haskell 

Hodgeman . 

Jackson 

Jefferson 

Jewell 

Johnson 

Kearney 

Kingman 

Kiowa 

Labette 

Lane 



57,152 

32,944 

216,230 

144,040 

2,944,688 

58,290 

560,672 

122,434 

51,426 

246,340 

807,350 

15,264 

25,207 

463,488 

513,080 

130,777 

32,292 

1,278,732 

349,661 

228,652 

1,186,178 

430,512 

236,166 

444,624 

107,916 

1,707,015 

1,812,-543 

24,585 

290,808 

85,080 

185,796 

254,016 

144,183 

170 

33,348 

17,555 

22,722 

13,310 

1,121,456 

1,137,980 

35,410 

159,174 

15,360 

69,950 

379,449 

245,235 

18,718 

578,746 

70,192 

631,070 

244,5.59 



1,498,499 

1,379,120 

1,618,027 

447,538 

403,314 

1,719,414 

3,648,150 

1,878,730 

505,180 

1,496,396 

1,345,431 

354,297 

56,574 

3,577,121 

2,973,600 

1,520,232 

40,892 

2,832,160 

1,327,720 

2,452,200 

2,202,120 

2,421,144 

1,6.55,676 

235,950 

1,704,822 

292,281 

695,472 

10,512 

184,280 

1,607,367 

1,014,438 

132,905 

766,998 

2,128 

15,048 

8,418 

2,939,078 

7,740 

608,-544 

660,807 

16,875 

43,848 

3,110,457 

1,956,278 

7,279,058 

1,420,520 

10,428 

491,564 

77,056 

1,339,861 

17,864 



195,744 
195,514 
334,460 

17,537 

47,536 
277,933 
704,.323 
524,0.56 

54,306 
149,056 
415,978 

40,716 
2,260 
719,716 
562,443 
193,908 

'613,725 

588,248 

66,838 

582,616 

551,397 

230,568 

110,619 

30,968 

41,216 

11.886 

10,968 

175,656 

208,164 

191,250 

17,250 

31,170 

1,638 

11,150 

1,144 

50,670 

8,210 

181,194 

476,000 

5,616 

20,075 

219,020 

301,640 

560,294 

374,601 

3,205 

51,808 

8,060 

754,850 

7,630 



2,769 
1,288 
3,880 

48,576 
3,420 
7,248 
3,330 
2,624 
1.640 
420 

10,180 
5,8.35 

18,496 
9,252 
5,940 
4,928 

17,328 
1,485 

94,448 

49,392 

11,120 
5,775 

21,008 
120 

16,492 

10,778 
84 

28,406 
1,394 
7,440 

15,600 

54,614 

""3,426 

100 

75 

730 

15,782 

34,935 

2,480 

20,328 

2,432 

4,709 

32,.509 

3,712 

744 

8,268 

17,800 

1,664 

3,444 



16 

9,392 

560 

30,362 

160 

3,936 

528 

* " 240 

"'41,688 

9,126 

96 

2,304 



250 
128 

14,805 
7,968 

25,008 
320 

26,575 

'60,'264 

144 

18,566 

61,226 

'112 

71,088 
69,270 
527 
28,611 
12,978 

""2,624 

6,820 

16 

26,828 

68,520 



144 



3,708 

552 

30,760 

'81,'738 



140 



KANSAS. 



CROP EEPORTS— Continued. 



COUNTIES. 


Wheat. 


Corn. 


Oats. 


Rye. 


Barley. 


Bushels. 


Bushels. 


Bushels. 


Bushels. 


Bushels. 



Leavenworth . 

Lincoln 

Linn 

Logan 

Lyon 

Marion 

Marshall 

McPherson 

Meade 

Miami 

Mitchell 

Montgomery .. 

Morris 

Morton 

Nemaha 

Neosho 

Ness 

Norton 

Osage 

Osborne 

Ottawa 

Pawnee 

Phillips 

Pottawatomie- 

Pratt 

Rawlins 

Reno 

Republic 

Rice 

Riley 

Rooks 

Rush 

Russell 

Saline 

Scott 

Sedgwick 

Seward 

Shawnee 

Sheridan 

Sherman 

Smith 

Stafford 

Stanton 

Stevens 

Sumner 

Thomas 

Trego 

Wabaunsee 

Wallace 

Washington 

Wichita 

Wilson 

Woodson 

Wyandotte 



241,575 

1,053,072 

89,424 

211,941 

53,889 

1,302,066 

419,860 

2,525,879 

39.756 

97,185 

907,018 

706,095 

18,824 

3,060 

176,662 

393,754 

603 081 

155,056 

47,520 

6<i2,592 

1,014,426 

1,399,128 

195,687 

89,440 

368,676 

309,904 

1,005,280 

141,520 

1,581,344 

79,452 

458,184 

1,630,296 

1,190,604 

1,613,106 

105,495 

1,493,712 

6,500 

24,548 

316,140 

68,337 

386,568 

857,436 

220 

2,508 

4,585,060 

615,032 

413,462 

88,224 

10,428 

324,786 

162,575 

159,300 

85,600 

96,482 



Totals 50,040,374 



1,545,720 

706.590 

1,913,256 

52,644 

1,947,060 

1,524,444 

6,882,330 

l.,875,360 

22,800 

1,883,277 

1,842.386 

1,564,420 

1,535,256 

2,528 

6,320,927 

1,783,580 

129,852 

2,097,424 

2,275,705 

1,864,896 

1,549,984 

121,494 

4,453,358 

3,972,164 

310,832 

735,318 

1,658,304 

7,739,156 

804,167 

2,231.450 

1,166,732 

172.470 

716,573 

633,663 

4,707 

1,267,506 

3,610 

1,784,286 

573,867 

274,278 

5,155,650 

662,109 

1,561 

8,424 

2,229,968 

382,092 

120,000 

1,769,836 

33,722 

6,812,855 

15,760 

1,838,340 

722,2.50 

490,420 



152,140,993 



313,710 

35,416 

231,616 

25,305 

109,763 

1,217,238 

818,510 

624,240 

4,144 

397,803 

141,627 

384,192 

119,030 

2,355 

621.225 

476,014 

27,705 

126,040 

164,703 

54,800 

122,440 

138,358 

183,222 

318,552 

21,000 

43,040 

281,520 

974,640 

125,853 

429,468 

92,720 

64,862 

35,700 

132,124 

9.390 

768,339 

1,620 

143,946 

65,642 

27,0,54 

279,403 

35,2.58 

960 

3,318 

779,518 

78,400 

32,946 

87,192 

6,304 

1,002,-537 

14,280 

130,675 

100,000 

76,726 



23,421,273 



6,128 

3,528 

4.607 

4,904 

180 

19,725 

22,590 

59,364 

5,328 

2,702 

17,904 

5,292 

3,458 

513 

13,344 

5,544 

15,660 

78,144 

468 

28,224 

13,440 

20,730 

77,346 

6,464 

2,922 

90,104 

44.448 

43,180 

23,024 

5,920 

40,164 

15,492 

18.005 

27,660 

882 

30,456 

970 

2,016 

33,648 

23,611 

67,580 

16,608 

680 

60 

39,700 

44,480 

32,608 

2,970 

1,584 

13,856 

1,496 

5,076 

2,793 

640 



1,661,662 



1,392 



55,622 

1,960 

1,260 

640 

34,980 

2,320 
80 

1,254 
492 
345 

"'l57,785 
3,928 

14,880 

144 

75,456 

22,180 

80 

28,951 

88,256 

1,056 

512 

2,896 

"'83,088 

67,606 

18,360 

2,768 

30,562 

704 

4,064 

112 

97,.560 

37,926 

4,600 

1,232 

432 

2,544 

1,320 

106,016 

65,032 



,390 

832 
,600 



1,772,426 



KANSAS 



141 



LIVE STOCK IN KANSAS. 

The State Board of Agriculture of the State of Kansas gives out the 
following report by counties, on the number of live stock for the year 
1897: 



COUNTIES. 



Horses. 



Mules 

and 

Asses. 



Milch Qv, „ ^ 
Cows. ^^eeP- 



Number. Number. Number.! Number. 



Swine. 



Number, 



Allen 

Anderson 

Atchison 

Barber 

Barton 

Bourbon 

Brown 

Butler 

Chase 

Chautauqua : 

Cherokee 

Cheyenne 

Clark 

Clay 

Cloud 

Coffey 

Comanche .... 

Cowley 

Crawford 

Decatur 

Dickinson 

Doniphan 

Douglas 

Edwards 

Elk 

Ellis 

Ellsworth 

Finney 

Ford 

Franklin 

Geary 

Gove 

Graham 

Grant 

Gray 

Greeley 

Greenwood .. 

Hamilton 

Harper 

Harvey 

Haskell 

Hodgeman... 

Jackson 

Jefferson 

Jewell 

Johnson 

Kearney 

Kingman 

Kiowa 

Labette 

Lane 

Leavenworth 

Lincoln 

Linn 

Logan 



8,691 

8,851 

5,501 

6.547 

10,327 

11,089 

11,810 

14,546 

5,144 

7,351 

10,257 

3,332 

2,060 

10,230 

11,765 

11,956 

1,743 

14,393 

7,538 

6,369 

11,994 

5,877 

11,488 

3,022 

8,479 

6,418 

6,297 

3,337 

3,742 

11,485 

4,960 

2,910 

4,185 

887 

1,550 

726 

11,245 

1,503 

6,867 

9,240 

527 

2,642 

10,614 

10,945 

15,976 

7,954 

1,375 

8,323 

2,646 

11,551 

2,101 

9,660 

8,034 

10,389 

2,487 



1,117 

1,293 

936 

1,042 

1,313 

1,325 

1,930 

1,526 

579 

960 

1,714 

150 

146 

742 

792 

1,274 

203 

1,352 

1,163 

637 

705 

1,939 

1,147 

267 

1,260 

421 

705 

173 

231 

1,064 

232 

137 

282 

54 

83 

39 

1,568 

96 

1,107 

793 

55 

131 

1,186 

1,635 

1,892 

1,426 

107 

1,126 

401 

1,403 

196 

1,646 

849 

1,374 

231 



6,516 
7,295 
5,641 
3,256 
7,076 
8,152 
7,533 
10,578 
2,242 
6,388 
6,631 
1,783 

909 
7,637 
8,161 
8,718 

862 
9,815 
5,006 
3,373 
12,736 
3,978 
8,811 
2,358 
7,441 
2,693 
3,715 
1,838 
2,579 
7,795 
3,290 
1,319 
2,498 

471 
1,036 

601 
8,406 

938 
3,755 
8,010 

319 
1,896 
8.316 
8,910 
8.581 
6,579 

640 
5,108 
1.262 
7,504 

988 
7,711 
5,235 
6,376 
1,127 



610 

756 

70 

4,600 

48 

576 

3,880 

15,069 

144 

88 

847 

7 

80 

1,237 

227 

1,214 

2,987 

913 

1,619 

27 

8,706 

98 

1,053 

103 

1,105 

86 

411 

3,305 

39 

816 

2,467 

1,610 

2,007 

9 

38 

1,412 

2,827 

437 

90 

1,461 

4 

8,279 

35 

628 

41 

3,635 

2,418 

1,573 

3 

777 

425 

1,445 

13 

820 

4,634 



30,284 
31,473 
16,912 
12,831 
11,069 
30,436 
33,359 
74,078 
17,154 
22,780 
17,.526 

2,143 

757 

44,415 

37,154 

35.582 

1..326 
37,603 
20,664 
22,120 
37,903 
32,t)08 
43,117 

3,084 
26,397 

3,473 
11,870 

1,711 

2,017 
39,893 
15,294 

1,113 

9,724 

191 

509 

152 

41,863 

319 

16,876 

31,312 

192 

799 

36,355 

40,700 

82,704 

36.646 

1,225 
24,592 

2,609 
18,609 
867 
30,316 
18,947 
35,923 
712 



142 



KANSAS. 



LIVE STOCK IN KANSAS— Continued. 



COUNTIES. 



Horses. 



Mules 
and 

Asses. 



Milch 
Cows. 



Number. Number. Number. Number. Number. Number 



Sheep. 



Swine. 



Other 
Cattle. 



Lyon 

Marion 

Marshall 

McPherson .... 

Meade . 

Miami 

Mitchell 

Montgomery . 

Morris 

Morton 

Nemaha 

Neosho 

Ness 

Norton 

Osage 

Osborne 

Ottawa 

Pawnee 

Phillips 

Pottawatomie- 
Pratt 

Rawlins 

Reno 

Republic 

Rice 

Riley 

Rooks : 

Rush 

Russell 

Saline 

Scott 

Sedgwick 

Seward 

Shawnee 

Sheridan 

Sherman 

Smith 

Stafford 

Stanton 

Stevens 

Sumner 

Thomas 

Trego 

Wabaunsee .-•• 

Wallace 

Washington.... 

Wichita 

Wilson 

Woodson 

Wyandotte 



12,395 

12,269 

13,517 

14,498 

2,269 

11, .560 

10,807 

8,127 

7,175 

597 

12,270 

10,745 

5,758 

8,534 

13,748 

9,836 

8,529 

4,626 

10,499 

12,838 

5,304 

4,875 

17,471 

13,054 

11,327 

8,688 

7,754 

5,762 

6,657 

9,670 

2,198 

19,283 

470 

14,328 

3,601 

3,474 

11,937 

7,017 

608 

672 

16,949 

3,964 

2,942 

9,355 

1.426 

12,353 

1,732 

8,439 

6,155 



Totals i 801,427 



1,281 
488 

1,411 
984 
116 

1,127 
919 

1,319 

599 

73 

1,457 

1,188 
404 
697 
981 
889 
856 
351 

1,081 
831 
775 
375 

2,300 

1,467 

1,581 
558 
545 
440 
506 
694 
74 

2,015 
56 

2,038 
2.51 
224 

1,246 

1,435 

31 

86 

21,061 

394 

164 

614 

66 

1,048 
98 

1,338 
624 



86,919 



9,232 

11,105 

11,715 

9,752 

876 

7,636 

6,975 

553 

5,056 

255 

8,304 

7,.301 

3,135 

4,295 

10,664 
6,878 
5,747 
2,630 
5.946 

10,705 
2,657 
2,794 

11,614 
7,752 
6,756 
7,575 
4,271 
3,360 
4,338 
5,868 
1,206 

12,093 

406 

9,966 

1,857 

1,987 

6,885 

4,279 

387 

760 

8,696 

2,208 

1,498 

8,655 

747 

12,.368 
660 
7,004 
5,200 
2,538 



552,538 



1,681 

1,065 

668 

530 

3,220 

990 

5,156 

391 

17 

360 

362 

948 

8 

1,000 

2,120 

5 

5,411 

684 

48 

1,705 

17 

524 

24,448 

60 

94 

1,643 

3,504 

212 

802 

14,353 

1,791 

10,227 

14 

3,810 

3,663 

325 

3,285 

17,641 

850 

70 

660 

111 

2,667 

9,051 

2,202 

1,450 

511 

235 

2,325 

1,980 



222,703 



39,408 
35,367 
50,966 
38,817 
551 
47,399 
38,673 
22,244 
24,980 
128 
45,782 
27,466 

2,832 
31,618 
47,569 
39,775 
20,160 

1,956 
40,401 
50,351 
10,395 

7,906 
67,600 
48,069 
30,183 
35,376 
20,636 

3,548 

9,653 
22,285 

1,035 

68,301 

226 

30,522 

5,601 

1,551 

56,345 

11,615 

158 

321 

45,391 

3,620 

1,615 
41,028 
296 
64,001 
673 
26,750 
17,690 
10,973 



31,615 

25,339 

26,451 

11,407 

22,211 

18,007 

11,257 

29,874 

3.257 

22,139 

13,256 

5,366 

9,.509 

32,140 

27,148 

32,076 

7,113 

11,884 

38,725 

4,202 

5,025 

36,425 

13,285 

16,102 

25,834 

9,367 

6,074 

16,255 

19,226 

1,930 

25,873 

3,745 

20,162 

5,312 

2,849 

13,590 

9,614 

1,979 

2,211 

19,169 

4,088 

6,.597 

33,703 

2,423 

20,512 

1,387 

14,751 

13,095 

3,805 



3,399,494 ,1,603,943 



A FEW OF THE PROSPEROUS CITIES OF KANSAS. 



POPULATION TAKEN FROM U. S. CENSUS, 1890. 



Atchison 15,500 

Great Bend 2,700 

Fort Scott 11,946 

Hiawatha 5,000 

Horton 3,316 

Eldorado 3,339 

Columbus 2,160 

Galena 2,496 

Weir City 2,138 

Clay Center 2,802 

Concordia 3,184 

Burlington 2,239 

Arkansas City 7,500 

Winfield 6,500 

Girard 2,541 

Pittsburg 12,200 

Abilene 3,547 

Lawrence 9,997 

Ellsworth 1,620 

Garden City 1,490 

Dodge City 1,763 

Ottawa 8,500 

Junction City 4,502 

Eureka 2,259 

Anthony 1,806 

Harper 1,579 

Newton 7,000 

Holton 2,727 

Olathe 3,294 

Kingman 2,390 

Chetopa 2,265 

Oswego 2,574 

Parsons 6,736 

Lansing 1,468 

Leavenworth 21,636 



Emporia 7,551 

McPherson 3,172 

Marion 2,047 

Peabody 1,474 

Marysville 1,913 

Paola 4,000 

Beloit 2,455 

Cherryvale 2,104 

Coffeyville 5,000 

Independence 3,900 

Council Grove 2,211 

Seneca 2,032 

Chanute 2,826 

Burlingame 1,472 

Osage City 3,469 

Scranton 1,572 

Larned 1,566 

Wamego 1,473 

Nickerson 1,662 

Hutchinson 10,000 

Belleville 1,868 

Lyons 1,754 

Sterling 1,641 

Manhattan 3,004 

Salina 6,300 

Wichita 25,000 

Topeka 35,000 

Caldwell 1,642 

Wellington 4,391 

Washington 1,613 

Fredonia 1,515 

Neodesha 1,528 

Kansas City 48,000 

Argentine 4,732 

Osawatomie 3,000 



Z-P^ 




Jhe Colorado 
Short Line 

VIA PUEBLO. 

■SOLID TRAINS 



-EQUIPPED WITH- 



Reclininq Chaik Gars (Seats Free,) 

Pullman Buffet Sleefinq Cars, 
ASS Eleqant Day Goaqhes, 

LEAVING ST. LOUIS DAILY 

AND RUN 



THROUGH VIA KANSIIS CITY 



TO 



PUEBLO, COLORADO SPRINGS AND DENVER, 
Witln Direct Connections for 

OGDEN, SALT LAKE CITY AND 
PACIFIC COAST POINTS. 



CHOICE OF TWO ROUTES.- 



APR27a49 



YALUAB Li} ASS iSTA^L.r.-. 

The following Traveling and Passenger Agents of '" MISSOURI PACIFIC RAIL- 
WAY and IRON MOUNTAIN ROUTE are constantly k'/ing after the interests ot 1 1 1.> 
Line, and will call upoJi parties contemplating a trip u. .1 cheerfnllv furnish theii. 
lowest Rates of Fare, Land Pamphlets, Maps, Guides, Timt- Tables, etc. 
Or they may be addressed as follows : 

ATCHISON, KAN.— C. E. Styles Passenirer and Ticket Agent. 

AUSTIN, TEX.— J. C. Lewis Traveling Pa.ssenger Agent. 

BOSTON. MASS.— Louis W. Ewald New England Pass'r Agent, 192 Washington St. • 

CAIRO, ILL.-T. F.Brown Ticket Agent. Union Depot 

C. G. Miller City Ticket Agent, 309 Ohio Levee. 

CHATTANOOGA, TENN.— I. E. Rehlander Traveling Pass'r Agent, 108 Read House. 

CHICAGO, ILL.— Bissell Wilson District Passenger Agent, 111 Adams St. 

CINCINNATI, OHIO— A. A. Gallagher, District Pass'r Agt., 408 Vine St, bet. Fourth, 
and Fifth Sts. 
T. A. Wilkinson, Trav. Pass'r and Land Agt., 408 Vine St., bet. 
Fourth and Fifth Streets. 
DENVER, COLO.— C. A. TRiPP..Gen'l Western Frt. and Pass'r Agt., cor. 17th & Stout Sts. 

E. E. Hoffman Traveling Passenger Agent. 

DETROIT, MICH.— H. D. Armstrong Traveling Passenger Agt., No. 7 Fort St., West. 

FT. SCOTT, KAN.— J. A. Hollinger Passenger and Ticket Agent. 

HOT SPRINGS, ARK.— R. M. Smith Depot Ticket Agent. 

INDIANAPOLIS, IND.— G. A. A. Deane, Jr Traveling Pass'r Agent, 231 McCrea St. 

KANSAS CITY, MO.— E. S. Jewett Passenger and Ticket Agent, 901 Main St. 

J.H. Lyon Western Passenger Agent, 901 Main St. 

Geo. E. Ritchie Assistant Ticket Agent., 10o2 Union Ave. 

J. F. Etter Passenger and Assistant Ticket Agt., 901 Main St. 

P. C. Lyon Traveling Passenger Agent. 

Tom Hughes City Passenger Agent, 1032 Union Ave. 

LEAVENWORTH, KAN.— J. N. Joerger Passenger and Ticket Agent. 

LINCOLN, NEB.— F. D. Cornell City Passenger and Ticket Aeent, 1039 O St. 

R. P. R. Millar Freight and Ticket Agent. 

LITTLE ROCK, ARK.— August Sundholm Passenger and Ticket Agent. 

LOUISVILLE, KY.— R. T. G. Matthews Trtive ling Passenger Agent, 304 West Main St. 

MEMPHIS, TENN.— H. D. Wilson Pass'r and Ticket Agt., 314 Main St., (cor. Monroe). 

Ellis Farnsworth, Trav. Pass'r Agent, 314 Main St., (cor. Monroe). 

MEXICO CITY, MEX.— H. C. Dinkins General Agent, Gante No. IL 

NEW YORK CITY— W. E. Hoyt General Eastern Passenger Agent, 391 Broadwav. 

J. P. McCann Traveling Passenger Agent, 391 Broadway. 

OMAHA, NEB.— Thos. F. GoDFREY-.Pass'r and Tkt. Agt., S. E. cor. 14th and Douglas Sts. 

W. C. Barnes Trav. Pass'r Agent, S. E. cor. 14th and Douglas Sis. 

PITTSBURG, PA.— John R. JAMES..Acting Central Pass'r Agt., Room 905 Park Building, 

Fifth Ave. and Smithfield Street. 

PUEBLO, COLO.— Wm. Hogg Passenger and Ticket Agent. 

ST. JOSEPH, MO.— Benton Quick... Passenger and Ticket Agent, German- American 

Bank Building, cor. Seventh and Felix Sts. 

ST. LOUIS, MO.— B. H. Payne Assistant General Passenger and Ticket Agent. 

H. F. BERKLEY...Pass'r&Tkt. Agent, N.W. cor. Broadwav and Olive St. 
M. Griffin ...City Passenger Agent, N.W. cor. Broadway and OliveSt. 

W. H. Morton Pas.senger Agent, Room 402, Union Station. 

A. V. Brigham Traveling Passenger Agent for Arkansas. 

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH— H. B. KoosER Com, Freight & Passenger Agt. , 

Nos. 105 and 107 West Second St. (Soiitl' . 

E. J. Flynn Traveling Freight and Passenger Alt iil. 

SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.— L. M. Fletcher Pacific Coast Agent, 212 California St. 

Malone Joyce Trav. Pass'r Agent, 212 California St. 

SEDALIA, MO.— J. W. McClain Passenger and Ticket Agent. 

TEXARKANA, ARK.— C. E. Swindell Ticket Agent. 

WICHITA, KAN.— E. E. Bleckley Passenger and Ticket Ayent, 114 N. Main St. 



G. WARNER, W. B. DODDRIDGE, 

Vice-President, General Man 

H. C.TOWNSEND. 

General Passenger and Ticket Agent, 

St. Louis, Mo. 




Mountain 
Route, 

Xr^E GREAT SOUTHWEST SYSTEM. 

CONNECTING THE COMMERCIAL CENTRES AND RICH FARMS OF 

MISSOURI, 

THE BROAD CORN AND WHEAT FIELDS AND THRIVING TOWNS OF 

KKNSKS, 

THE FERTILE RIVER VALLEYS AND TRADE CENTRES OP 

NEBRHSKK, 

THE GRAND. PICTURESQUE AND ENCHANTING SCENERY. AND 
THE FAMOUS MINING DISTRICTS OF 

COLORHDO. 

THE AGRICULTURAL. FRUIT. MINERAL AND TIMBER LANDS. AND 
FAMOUS HOT SPRINGS OF 

HRKHNSHS, 

THE BEAUTIFUL ROLLING PRAIRIES AND WOODLANDS OF THE 

INDIHN TERRITORY, 

THE SUGAR. COTTON AND TIMBER PLANTATIONS OP 

LOUISIKNH, 

THE COTTON AND GRAIN FIELDS. THE CATTLE RANGES ANP 
WINTER RESORTS OF 

TEXKS, 

HISTORICAL AND SCENIT 

OLD HND NEM MEXICO. 

AND FORMS WITH ITS CONNECTIONS THE POPULAR ROUTE TO 

HRIZONH HND CHLIFORNm. 



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